Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANNIE, by JAMES OPPENHEIM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANNIE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the fragrance of her simple heart I still bathe my- / self
Last Line: Annie, one of the sweetest.
Subject(s): Girls; Love - Beginnings


IN THE fragrance of her simple heart I still bathe myself:
For Annie was a girl of the people,
With eyes of the clearest brown,
And a voice low and sweet.

Her blushes were quick as her tears:
And the caress of her hand, and the "ah!" as she sighed,
Thinking she had offended,
Were as echoes of moonlit waters on a far shore ...

Something breathed from her as deep of the womanly as the Earth itself:
I dreamt of hay in the barn, and slopes of daisies beside the road,
And the kitchen scoured and shining, and the hearth gleaming in the night:
Something so old and new, so common and magic:
For Annie was a girl of the people,
A darling of the Earth.

She said: "I am lonely, too ...
I live in a room by myself and work in the day...
Three months back my mother died, leaving me lonely..."

"Ah," she said, "your brown eyes now!" And she laughed, and we kissed...
And over her face came a glow as her eyes met mine,
And her deep glance pierced me...

"Soon as you're gone," she said, "you'll be forgetting me:
And you'll take to the next woman you ever meet,
And you'll kiss her like you kiss me...
But I'll not be forgetting you ever in my life:
And how we met, and came up the stoop, and kissed behind the door..."

"So," she sighed, holding me close by the hand,
"Go now: what'll I think of myself letting you kiss me?
It's my fault, sure: I'd never be blaming you...
Goodnight," she sighed, and we kissed, and she watched me go.

Out of the Earth spring natural simple flowers:
Out of the people come simple natural women:
Annie, one of the sweetest.





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