Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WHITE MOTH, by ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: If a leaf rustled, she would start Last Line: "then wrote ""that I had died instead!" Alternate Author Name(s): Q; Quiller-couch, A. T. Subject(s): Moths | ||||||||
If a leaf rustled, she would start: And yet she died, a year ago. How had so frail a thing the heart To journey where she trembled so? And do they turn and turn in fright, Those little feet, in so much night? The light above the poet's head Streamed on the page and on the cloth, And twice and thrice there buffeted On the black pane a white-winged moth: 'T was Annie's soul that beat outside And "Open, open, open!" cried: "I could not find the way to God; There were too many flaming suns For signposts, and the fearful road Led over wastes where millions Of tangled comets hissed and burned -- I was bewildered and I turned. "O, it was easy then! I knew Your window and no star beside. Look up, and take me back to you!" -- He rose and thrust the window wide. 'T was but because his brain was hot With rhyming; for he heard her not. But poets polishing a phrase Show anger over trivial things; And as she blundered in the blaze Towards him, on ecstatic wings, He raised a hand and smote her dead; Then wrote "That I had died instead!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOBOCRASPIS GRISEIFUSA by TED KOOSER THE WOOLEN BUG by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS ALL FOOLS' CALENDER by DONALD (GRADY) DAVIDSON THE MOTHS: 1. CIRCA 1582 by NORMAN DUBIE THE MOTHS: 1. CIRCA 1952 by NORMAN DUBIE THE NIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING by NORMAN DUBIE TO A MOTH SEEN IN WINTER by ROBERT FROST SAGE COUNSEL by ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH |
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