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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CLINGING ARMS, by JAMES OPPENHEIM Poet's Biography
First Line: Push off the clinging arms!
Last Line: By trusting its power to go alone.
Subject(s): Love - Complaints
First Line: Push off the clinging arms!
Last Line: By trusting its power to go alone.
Subject(s): Love - Complaints
PUSH off the clinging arms!
There is only death in this strangle-hold; even if we call it love...
The mother who cares too much for her child,
Or the husband for his wife,
They are keeping sheltered and confined what should be free and hardy, toughened for battle!
Nay, there is no real love in this binding:
It is more often a sense of waste and futility,
And a fierce bickering and quarreling...
Shake free!
Know love in freedom: know love in separation:
Give the soul its own self to support it, and take off your arms!
Do honor to the divinity of another human being
By trusting its power to go alone.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
TALKING RICHARD WILSON BLUES, BY RICHARD CLAY WILSON by DENIS JOHNSON
THE BRIDGE by ALEXANDER ANDERSON
THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW by SABINE BARING-GOULD
MISGIVINGS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS
THROUGH AGONY: 1 by CLAUDE MCKAY
HEMATITE HEIRLOOM LIVES ON (MAYBE DECEMBER 1980) by ALICE NOTLEY
QUICK AND BITTER by YEHUDA AMICHAI