Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE OATH by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER

First Line: STIFF ON THE TONGUE, THE OATH
Last Line: WITNESS TO THE SOUL'S WAYS.
Subject(s): SOUL;

Stiff on the tongue, the oath
Calls man or God or both
To witness what light thing?
Crisis breathes in its sound;
Signs of the soul's torn ground
Outlive its casual ring.

The traffic of our speech
Includes, yet cannot reach
The passion-soldered phrase;
Alien to the air,
Profane, it still must bear
Witness to the soul's ways.



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