Si's temper was barbed-quilled as a hedgehog's tail And threw quills when he went to get a drink And found but tepid water; on the brink Of the well-curb they fell clanking on the pail. For weeks the quills would fly if a dry-rot rail Was hooked from the pasture fence, and left a chink For jumping cows to munch on corn. The swink Of hunting hens' nests was a quill-gybed flail. Si's wife used tweezers: eased her mind's grim tread By yank of quills from flesh that silenced groans. Si's son they worked in, on and around his bones With pain-jabbed waves of hot and hateful dread, Until one day quite worn out dragging stones He hurled one at the quills, and crushed Si's head. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MERCHANTS FROM CATHAY by WILLIAM ROSE BENET IN VINCULIS; SONNETS WRITTEN IN AN IRISH PRISON: HONOUR DISHONOURED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT TRANSFIGURATION by MARGIE B. BOSWELL THE SMACK RACE by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |