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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


800,000 VIBRATIONS TO THE SECOND by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER

First Line: THIS DETAIL FROM THE THESIS FALLS
Last Line: NEAT UNDERSTATEMENT OF GOD'S WAYS.
Subject(s): SPEECH; ORATORY; ORATORS;

This detail from the thesis falls
Without a crash into the air;
The speaker's pointer pauses, crawls
Across the board, the listeners there
Accept the fact that he has reckoned
The doings of this freighted second.

And we, whose coarse-grained hours show clear
On the vacant clock with slow hands turning,
To tell the time of soul or year,
The lover gone, the dry leaves burning—
Jot down vast happenings in a phrase,
Neat understatement of God's ways.



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