TRYING to open locked doors with a sword, threading the points of needles, planting shade trees upside down; swallowed by the opaqueness of one whom the seas love better than they love you, Ireland— you have lived and lived on every kind of shortage. You have been compelled by hags to spin gold thread from straw and have heard men say: "There is a feminine temperament in direct contrast to ours which makes her do these things. Circumscribed by a heritage of blindness and native incompetence, she will become wise and will be forced to give in. Compelled by experience, she will turn back; water seeks its own level": and you have smiled. "Water in motion is far from level." You have seen it when obstacles happened to bar the path—rise automatically. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOATMAN OF KINSALE by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS THE BELLS OF LYNN; HEARD AT NAHANT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW TO DR. AIKIN ON HIS COMPLAINING THAT SHE NEGLECTED HIM by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD VINCENT VAN GOGH by HARRIET R. BEAN THE EPITAPH OF RAPHAEL by PIETRO BEMBO TWO SONNETS: 1 by DAVID P. BERENBERG |