(There is a tradition in Wiscasset, Maine, that a house was bought there as a refuge for Marie Antoinette.) Suppose Marie Antoinette @3had@1 come to Wiscasset, Escaped from Paris, escaped from violence, escaped from fear, Would she have lived soberly and quietly, Talking to the women in the square white houses here? Where they saw gray water, she would have seen steel flashing, Where they saw autumn leaves, blood she would have seen. The shivering white birches would have seemed like frightened ladies, Where the Wiscasset eyes found only moving green. And when she saw the women go out into the barnyards Then she would have felt her tired heart fail, Remembering the Trianon and a dress of flowered satin, And herself going milking with a silver milking pail. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ROAD MENDERS by LAURENCE BINYON INSPIRATION by GRACE HOLBROOK BLOOD THE SUNLIT VALE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 38. TO ONE NOW ESTRANGED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT VISTAS OF LABOR: 4. FACTORY CHILDREN by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON BODY MODIFICATIONS by CATHLEEN CALBERT |