Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IRRADIATIONS: 15 by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER

First Line: O SEEDED GRASS, YOU ARMY OF LITTLE MEN
Last Line: THE LONG THIN LAZY FINGERS OF THE HEAT.

O seeded grass, you army of little men
Crawling up the long slope with quivering, quick blades of steel:
You who storm millions of graves, tiny green tentacles of Earth,
Interlace yourselves tightly over my heart,
And do not let me go:
For I would lie here forever and watch with one eye
The pilgrimaging ants in your dull, savage jungles,
The while with the other I see the stiff lines of the slope
Break in mid-air, a wave surprisingly arrested,
And above them, wavering, dancing, bodiless, colourless, unreal,
The long thin lazy fingers of the heat.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net