Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BRIGHT DARK by HOWARD MCKINLEY CORNING

First Line: FOREVER CONSCRIPT TO PROFOUNDEST DARK
Last Line: ASSUME TERRESTIAL ORBIT WITH THE SUN'S.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; DEATH; KELLER, HELEN (1880-1968); SOUL; DEAD, THE;
Forever conscript to profoundest dark,
Yet still in flesh a consort with her kind,
For her the soaring heavens flame and spark,
Their terrible beauty regnant in her mind.

For her, whatever shadow moved like mist,
Still courses through her veins the trenchant press
Of body's passion and the fruitful tryst
Of sense and substance in a dark caress.

No dark too deep but what her clasp can fold
The seed that blooms the orchid, while the flame
Of utterest anguish rectifies to gold,
And death's intolerable nameless have a name.

The vague Equator and the vaguer Pole
Fuse to a meaning, and we sighted ones
Behold the gloriole within her soul
Assume terrestial orbit with the sun's.



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