What is dust? Ashes of love, charred letters, faded heliotrope, Rose petals fallen from a dead hand, Spiders, bats, deserted houses, crumbling citadels, And wheel ruts where vanished armies have passed. Is that all? Oh, dust is sun and laughter, Circuses, parasols, preening pigeons, Lovers picnicking by the roadside, And ragamuffins tumbling in the warm lanes. Dust is rainbow webs caught in sweet, hot smelling hedges, And it is dust that keeps my eyes from being blinded by the stars! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN ISLAND (SAINT HELENA, 1821) by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE FAIRY THORN; AN ULSTER BALLAD by SAMUEL FERGUSON TO A LADY: SHE REFUSING TO CONTINUE A DISPUTE WITH ME by MATTHEW PRIOR SONNET: 67 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ODE TO THE WEST WIND by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY FINDING CYNTHIA IN PAIN, AND CRYING; A SONNET by PHILIP AYRES EASTERN TEMPEST by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN AFTER THEATER by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE TO THE PRESIDENT OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES |