Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AGAIN by HAROLD HART CRANE

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHAT IN THIS HEAP IN WHICH THE SERPENT PRIES
Last Line: "HOW MUCH YET MEETS THE TREASON OF THE SNOW."
Subject(s): NOTHINGNESS; NIHILISM; VOIDS;

What in this heap in which the serpent pries,
Reflects the sapphire transepts round the eyes --
The angled octagon upon a skin,
Facsimile of time unskeined,
From which some whispered carillon assures
Speed to the arrow into feathered skies?

New thresholds, new anatomies,
New freedoms now distil
This competence, to travel in a tear,
Sparkling alone within another's will.

My blood dreams a receptive smile
Wherein new purities are snared. There chimes
Before some flame a restless shell
Tolled once perhaps by every tongue in hell.
Anguished the wit cries out of me, "The world
Has followed you. Though in the end you know
And count some dim inheritance of sand,
How much yet meets the treason of the snow."



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