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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONGS FOR TWO SEASONS: 1. AFTER GRAVE ILLNESS by CAROL FROST

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: THE BODY HAS TWO SEASONS
Last Line: THINGS SIMPLY ARE
Subject(s): SICKNESS; ILLNESS;

The body has two seasons
and doesn't exist to be changed;
it itself changes-as moths come into a field,
then the hunted deer.
Who knows from the outside
where death grows?

A man rubs his eyes as if to recover
some first sight. Clouds scuttle.
There is rain; there's snow;
a northerly wind crushing in its teeth
the year's seeds.
He is pushed inside
out like a glove showing its lining.
Things simply are.

First published in @3The Kenyon Review@1, Volume 22 #2 Spring 2000.
www.kenyonreview.org/roth




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