Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE COCK by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER

First Line: IN THE BLACK HOUR THE FRIENDLY COCK DID CRY
Last Line: A FROZEN SUN TO GILD THE FROZEN BOUGH.
Subject(s): ROOSTERS; TIME; COCKS;

In the black hour the friendly cock did cry,
And from the iron city where I lay,
I heard his petty trumpet in the sky,
His single word that darkness should be day.

And I who would have stopped the tick of the clock,
The sun as well, because of what I knew,
Took courage from the courage of the cock,
Who only did what he was used to do.

And listening to his boast by sunlight taught,
His loud promiscuous comfort I knew how
To echo him—to draw from practiced thought
A frozen sun to gild the frozen bough.



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