Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE CLOCK by JOHN COWPER POWYS

First Line: WHY DO YOU GO TO THAT GRAND HOTEL
Last Line: "AND LONDON, WITH THEIR CHIMES."
Subject(s): CLOCKS; GUILT; HOUSEHOLD EMPLOYEES; LOVE; TIME; SERVANTS; DOMESTICS; MAIDS;

"Why do you go to that grand hotel Of iron and marble built?"
-- "I do not know -- I cannot tell --
Yet something in me could answer well
If it would." And I blushed with guilt.

"Try to say it," she said. "Is't the gilded roof,
Or the bunches of roses red,
Or the airy corridors, fire-proof,
Or the servants' velvet tread?"

-- "Yes, these -- but something more than these!
Hush! Did you hear that sound?
The corner-clock! It brings release
To ghosts of underground.

"No other House, no other place,
Chants me these wistful rhymes
That brings first love and a long-lost face
And London, with their chimes."



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