Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ISLANDS: 5 by HILDA DOOLITTLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: BUT BEAUTY IS SET APART
Last Line: AND FROM GREECE.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; BIBLE; GREECE; ISLANDS; PROPERTY; GREEKS; POSSESSIONS;
But beauty is set apart,
beauty is cast by the sea,
a barren rock,
beauty is set about
with wrecks of ships,
upon our coast, death keeps
the shallows -- death waits
clutching toward us
from the deeps.

Beauty is set apart;
the winds that slash its beach,
swirl the coarse sand
upward toward the rocks.

Beauty is set apart
from the islands
and from Greece.



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