Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BROTHER DEATH, by RUTH DUHME


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BROTHER DEATH, by                    
First Line: The soundless army beats retreat
Last Line: The city of the dreadful night.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


The soundless army beats retreat.
The shadowy regiments divide
along the streets where flickering lamps
curve down the city's nether side.

They march at dawn and dusk. They pass
unseen on that Homeric verge
of dark and sun, where day and night
indistinctly meet and merge.

Taps have sounded. Women leave
the desk, the loom, to light a fire,
to cook a meal, and then lie down
beside some man's worn-out desire.

Others climb to furnished rooms.
A plate's Cyclopean eye glows red
to warm their soup. They eat and yawn
and take the morning news to bed.

What means to these the thrust of clouds
across a windy pastured hill,
the shape of trees against the greenish
light of spring, the noon's hot will?

These are for the dark. They hold,
beyond the barricades of light,
in unrelenting, bitter siege,
the city of the dreadful night.





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