Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HURRICANE by ELSIE TAYLOR DUTRIEUILLE

First Line: HOW STRANGE TO SIT IN THIS FANTASTIC PLACE
Last Line: LOOK WHERE THE HURRICANE HAS FOUGHT -- AND DIED.
Subject(s): HURRICANES;

How strange to sit in this fantastic place
With day deposed by maniacal night
Like breath indrawn by pain. Dumbly, I face
The orgies of this bombastic night:
The wind in grasp of blind, vandalic power,
Uproots the trees and gapes the trusting land;
It smacks to splinters, turret, spire and tower,
And snatches roofs with clutch of greedy hand.
Our homes lie prostrate on the pasture bed
And human cries stampede the placid earth:
"O, day of promise, are your pledges dead
That rivers maul for death and mock their girth?"

Look, men who dare by war to throne your pride --
Look where the hurricane has fought -- and died.



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