Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CASTALIAN SPRING, by SEAMUS HEANEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Thunderface. Not zeus's ire, but hers | ||||||||
Thunderface. Not Zeus's ire, but hers Refusing entry, and mine mounting from it. This one thing I had vowed: to drink the waters Of the Castalian Spring, to arrogate That much to myself and be the poet Under the god Apollo's giddy cliff But the inner water sanctum was roped off When we arrived. Well then, to hell with that, And to hell with all who'd stop me, thunderface! So up the steps then, into the sandstone grottoes, The seeps and dreeps, the shallow pools, the mosses, Come from beyond, and come far, with this useless Anger draining away, on terraces Where I bowed and mouthed in sweetness and defiance. First Published in The Kenyon Review, Volume 23 #2 (Spring 2001). www.kenyonreview.org/roth | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GRAND ARMY PLAZA by KAREN SWENSON THE MYSTERY OF PAIN by EMILY DICKINSON THE BELLS OF SHANDON by FRANCIS SYLVESTER MAHONY HENDECASYLLABICS by ALFRED TENNYSON SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE STORY OF ZERBIN AND ISABELLA, FR. ORLANDO FURIOSO by LUDOVICO (LODOVICO) ARIOSTO THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 4. THE PASSIONS by JOHN ARMSTRONG |
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