Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LAPSE by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER

First Line: MEASURE THE FAILURE OF PRINT
Last Line: A LOATHSOME CRIME.
Subject(s): NIGHT; SILENCE; BEDTIME;

Measure the failure of print
Not by the travelled eye;
Nor test the vibrations of night air
Speaking our tongue,
By the deaf ear—
If we listened—if we saw,
The switching on of lights at twilight
In the well-warmed house,
Would be more gruesome
Than stumbling among the dead,
And the savoring of the melon on the tongue,
A loathsome crime.



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