Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DOWAGER by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER

First Line: THE HILL FRONTS MY GARDEN
Last Line: IN HER OWN FAMILY.
Subject(s): OLD AGE; WIDOWS & WIDOWERS;
The hill fronts my garden,
With patronizing calm,
Spreading stiff skirts about her
And looking down
On my transient flowers
With the inbred contempt of old blood
For the less old.
Yet I know that the hill
Would never be so lofty nor secure,
Nor altogether respectably established,
If something very sudden
Had not happened
In her own family.



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