Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TIME TABLE, by FANNY DE GROOT HASTINGS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TIME TABLE, by                    
First Line: Leave, arrive - leave, arrive
Last Line: The rest belong to eternity.
Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


Leave, arrive -- leave, arrive;
Hours and minutes -- nothing alive;
Names of places neatly printed,
Nothing of parting and meeting hinted;
Nothing of trees woven in screens
By the spinning wheels of hurtling machines;
Nothing of mountains cloven in twain
To make a path for an all-steel train;
Nothing of stars keeping their place,
Or moon with her white ironical face --
Illusively still, never out-run,
What cares she for seconds spun?
Nothing of strangers side by side,
Sharing a brief, fantastic ride;
Nothing of melting ice at the mouth
Of a frozen river flowing south;
Nothing of miles of frosted downs,
Nothing of bright kaleidoscoped towns;
Nothing of all the transient scene
Visibly fluid, rushing between
The stiff, plush seats of a crowded car
And the fixity of the evening star.

Leave, arrive -- arrive, leave;
Time to rejoice, time to grieve,
But there is no space on a time table sheet
To record the length of a full heartbeat.
The west-bound special leaves at three;
The rest belong to eternity.





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