Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SPEED, by GLORIA GODDARD First Line: We glide along the glistening road that lies Last Line: On -- on -- Subject(s): Automobiles; Cars | ||||||||
We glide along the glistening road that lies Like a polished blade beneath our lights, and flies Behind like a thing insane. Ahead, the sky dips down like a wall, gleaming With stars. The trees rush by, streaming Their leaves and branches through the thin air As a flood in spring. With sibilant malice The wheels hiss as they fling Us from stolid security to breathless doubt. Towns are drowned in a pool of light Dripping from each house Into the hollow moment, caught in flight. The still breeze leaps into a shout To taunt our ears, And, barbed as a javelined host, Pricks our stiffened faces. Up a hill, where the road springs Free to reach the clouds, We rush with whistling breath, While the silver night sings Low insistent warning. Down, down, into the dipping valley, -- All I am; -- body, heart, and soul, That slender quickening spark that sets me Apart from hill and still metal road And stiff stone wall, -- Is dwindled to that constricted spot Within my narrow throat. In a half-sick ecstasy of fear, I soar Up, up, again, Until we nearly meet the sky. The soft night air raises its protesting cry To a roar. Two rapier lights Thrust swiftly over the crest Of the hill. Terror, with a mocking laugh, Hurls oblivion from each shaft Of night-spiked light. -- Let it come! Let it lift me high for one last flight, Then down to the quiet rest Of all quick things. -- The brilliant death leers by, We sink between the breasted hills, Like a planet from the sky. -- Numb -- And stream with the hurtling wind. On -- on -- Shrinking time to that gnat worry Men call seconds; Making the gay leaves scurry From the hollowness we slice Out of the shadowed air; Winding space On our hissing wheels. On -- on -- | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DRIVING ALONGSIDE THE HOUSANTONIC RIVER ALONE ON A RAINY APRIL NIGHT by WILLIAM MATTHEWS OLD SONG FOR THE BO by HAYDEN CARRUTH WHAT I'VE BELIEVED IN by JAMES GALVIN THE GREEN AUTOMOBILE by ALLEN GINSBERG THAT'S THE SUM OF IT by DAVID IGNATOW WINDSHIELD by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER PORTRAIT OF A MOTOR CAR by CARL SANDBURG REAR VISION by WILLIAM JAY SMITH DUET, WITH MUFFLED BRAKE DRUMS by JOHN UPDIKE PRUNED TREES by GLORIA GODDARD |
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