Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE GOLDFINCH by RICHARD DEHMEL

First Line: THE SUNLIGHT STABS; A THISTLE PLOT
Last Line: OUR GLAD EXISTENCE.
Subject(s): GOLDFINCHES;

THE sunlight stabs; a thistle plot
Gleams in the noontide still and hot.
Above the wide and jagged mere
Of leaves the stalks are lifting sheer
Their heads of purple.

Across the foliage iron-gray
A bright bird hops and hops away
Amid the host without a fear,
Blithely, as though no thorn were here—
A little goldfinch.

He flirts his tail and whirs his wing.
Then comes a breeze with gentle swing
From blossom-spear to blossom-spear
And shakes the shadows far and near;
Off darts the goldfinch.

I too go onward free of doubt,
Behold the bright world round about,
And pass through life without a fear
As if no thorn could trouble here
Our glad existence.



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