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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SILENCE by HAYDEN CARRUTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: SOMETIMES WE DON'T SAY ANYTHING. SOMETIMES
Last Line: It’s the way love is in a late stage of the world
Subject(s): SILENCE;

Sometimes we don't say anything. Sometimes
we sit on the deck and stare at the masses of
goldenrod where the garden used to be
and watch the color change from day to day,
the high yellow turning to mustard and at last
to tarnish. Starlings flitter in the branches
of the dead hornbeam by the fence. And are these
therefore the procedures of defeat? Why am I
saying all this to you anyway since you already
know it? But of course we always tell
each other what we already know. What else?
It's the way love is in a late stage of the world.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org



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