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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IN DISPRAISE OF THE MOON, by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE Poet's Biography
First Line: I would not be the moon, the sickly thing
Last Line: That light, reflected, but makes darkness plain.
Alternate Author Name(s): Anodos
Subject(s): Moon
First Line: I would not be the moon, the sickly thing
Last Line: That light, reflected, but makes darkness plain.
Alternate Author Name(s): Anodos
Subject(s): Moon
I would not be the Moon, the sickly thing,
To summon owls and bats upon the wing;
For when the noble Sun is gone away,
She turns his night into a pallid day.
She hath no air, no radiance of her own,
That world unmusical of earth and stone.
She wakes her dim, uncolored, voiceless hosts,
Ghost of the Sun, herself the sun of ghosts.
The mortal eyes that gaze too long on her
Of Reason's piercing ray defrauded are.
Light in itself doth feed the living brain;
That light, reflected, but makes darkness plain.
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POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN
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FULL MOON by KARLE WILSON BAKER
NO MORE OF THE MOON by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP
THE DEPARTURE by DENISE LEVERTOV
THE MOON IN GREECE by TIMOTHY LIU
WHERE A ROMAN VILLA STOOD, ABOVE FREIBURG' by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE