Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CONTRADICTION, by ALICE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I love the deep quiet - all buried in leaves Last Line: That has made you the creature you are, not your will. Subject(s): Life; Love | ||||||||
I LOVE the deep quiet -- all buried in leaves, To sit the day long just as idle as air, Till the spider grows tame at my elbow, and weaves, And toadstools come up in a row round my chair. I love the new furrows -- the cones of the pine, The grasshopper's chirp, and the hum of the mote; And short pasture-grass where the clover-blooms shine Like red buttons set on a holiday coat. Flocks packed in the hollows -- the droning of bees, The stubble so brittle -- the damp and flat fen; Old homesteads I love, in their clusters of trees, And children and books, but not women nor men. Yet, strange contradiction! I live in the sound Of a sea-girdled city -- 't is thus that it fell, And years, oh, how many! have gone since I bound A sheaf for the harvest, or drank at a well. And if, kindly reader, one moment you wait To measure the poor little niche that you fill, I think you will own it is custom or fate That has made you the creature you are, not your will. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE INVENTION OF LOVE by MATTHEA HARVEY TWO VIEWS OF BUSON by ROBERT HASS A LOVE FOR FOUR VOICES: HOMAGE TO FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN by ANTHONY HECHT AN OFFERING FOR PATRICIA by ANTHONY HECHT LATE AFTERNOON: THE ONSLAUGHT OF LOVE by ANTHONY HECHT A SWEETENING ALL AROUND ME AS IT FALLS by JANE HIRSHFIELD A SPINSTER'S STINT by ALICE CARY |
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