Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. SQUINANCY-WORT, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. SQUINANCY-WORT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What have I done?
Last Line: Perhaps in his infinite mercy god will remove this man!
Subject(s): Flowers; Man-woman Relationships; Sin; Male-female Relations


WHAT have I done?—
I am a little flower,
Out of many a one
That twinkles forth after each passing shower.
White, with a blushful glow,
In the sweet meadows I grow,
Or innocent over the hill tops sport and run.—
What have I done?

Many an age agone,
Before man walked on earth,
I was. In the sun I shone;
I shook in the wind with mirth;
And danced on the high tops looking out seaward— where I had birth.
Web-footed monsters came
And into the darkness went
In ponderous tournament,
Many an age agone.
But on the high tops I dwelt ever the same,
With sisters many a one,
Guiltless of sin and shame!—
What have I done?

What have I done?—Man came,
Evolutional upstart one!
With the gift of giving a name
To everything under the sun.
What have I done?—Man came
(They say nothing sticks like dirt).
Looked at me with eyes of blame
And called me "Squinancy-wort."

What have I done? I linger
(I cannot say that I live)
In the happy lands of my birth;
Passers-by point with the finger;
For me the light of the sun
Is darkened. Oh, what would I give
To creep away and hide my shame in the earth!—
What have I done?

Yet there is hope. I have seen
Many changes since I began.
The web-footed beasts have been
(Dear beasts!)—and gone, being part of some wider plan.
Perhaps in his infinite mercy God will remove this Man!





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