Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONTRA MORTEM: THE WOMAN, by HAYDEN CARRUTH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONTRA MORTEM: THE WOMAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Among birches moving their white halfnakedness
Last Line: Given and perfect and beyond and inconsolable
Subject(s): Beauty; Grace; Women


Among birches moving their white halfnakedness
she dances And the veils of her being obscure her
or half obscure her for they are her dress
or her undress while nearer
or farther she dances moving effortless
and selfabsorbed like the birches with their sense
of naturalness and when she appears
naked at last having cast to the breeze
her semblances as in her dreams the birches
step intricately before her
or drench her in cooling shadows all the riches
of this presence flowing upon her and through her
making her an object in the true world unknowable
her dance the dance of things without past or future
given and perfect and beyond and inconsolable.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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