Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONDITIONAL, by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONDITIONAL, by                    
First Line: But if the reason were that implement
Last Line: With its indifferent blade?
Subject(s): Reason; Soul; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


But if the reason were that implement
We claim, should we not learn
Without this long apprenticeship,
This playing of the fool,
To look beyond earth's beauty blindly sent,
Discount false fires that burn
In the brain; convert the plastic lip
To truth, if not the eye?
And should we not at last apply the rule
Of the foredoomed earth, with silence and restraint
To our lost selves? Measure the personal cry
Against the fallen leaf;
Note the worn cliff, and so choke down complaint?
Oh, should we not root from us hope and grief,
If reason were that tempered edge
We claim, and unafraid
To still the soul's loud talk of privilege
With its indifferent blade?





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