Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COUNT TEN, by BONARO OVERSTREET


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COUNT TEN, by                    
First Line: What shall we count to cool our angry pride?
Last Line: "was I enraged with you? . . . Well, that is ended. . ."
Subject(s): Anger


(Count ten before speaking in anger.)
What shall we count to cool our angry pride?
Ten chilly digits standing in a line?
Oh, wiser far to count ten circling stars
That lean upon blue space: they will decline
To lend themselves to bitterness or pain.
Or we might count ten muted leaves that fall
Bearing a freight of somber autumn rain --
Ten leaves that fall, one here, one distantly,
In leisurely submission to the ground.
Or ten flecked pebbles lying in a pool
So hushed by dawn that the air holds no sound
Of water-motion. Or count ten mortal men
Who have come forth by the red gate of birth
To meet the wind. . . to learn the tang of laughter. . .
To wonder. . . and return into the earth.
For having counted, slowly we can lift
Our eyes to look on him who has offended,
Saying, "How large and strange this life we live. . .
Was I enraged with you? . . . Well, that is ended. . ."





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net