Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE STENOGRAPHERS, by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE Poet's Biography First Line: After the brief bivouac of sunday Last Line: Race round the track of the stadium pupil. Alternate Author Name(s): Page, P. K. Subject(s): Stenography | ||||||||
After the brief bivouac of Sunday their eyes, in the forced march of Monday to Saturday hoist the white flag, flutter in the snow storm of paper, haul it down and crack in the midsun of temper. In the pause between the first draft and the carbon they glimpse the smooth hours when they were children the ride in the ice-cart, the iceman's name, the end of the route, and the long walk home. Remember the sea where floats at high tide were sea marrows growing on the scatter-green vine or spools of grey toffee, or wasps nests on water; remember the sand and the leaves of the country. Bell rings and they go and the voice draws their pencil like a sledge across snow; when its runners are frozen rope snaps and the voice then is pulling no burden but runs like a dog on the winter of paper. Their climates are winter and summerno wind for the kites of their heartsno wind for a flight; a breeze at the most, to tumble them over and leave them like rubbishthe boy-friends of blood. In the inch of the noon as they move they are stagnant. The terrible calm of the noon is their anguish; the lip of the counter, the shape of the straws like icicles breaking their tongues are invaders. Their beds are their oceanssalt water of weeping the waves that they knowthe tide before sleep; and fighting to drown they assemble their sheep in columns and watch them leap desks for their fences and stare at them with their own mirror-worn faces. In the felt of the morning, the calico minded, sufficiently starched, insert papers, hit keys, efficient and sure as their adding machines; yet they weep in the vault, they are taut as net curtains stretched upon frames. In their eyes I have seen the pin-men of madness in marathon trim race round the track of the stadium pupil. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STENOGRAPHY by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS THE NEW STENOGRAPHER by ANONYMOUS MY STENOGRAPHER'S NOTABLE GLAMOUR by UNKNOWN ISOLATIONIST by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE LANDSCAPE OF LOVE by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE ROWAN BERRIES by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE THE MOLE by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE CONTRA MORTEM: THE BEING AS MOMENT by HAYDEN CARRUTH WHEN I WAS A BIRD by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |
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