Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PERSEUS by ROBERT EARL HAYDEN

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: HER SLEEPING HEAD WITH ITS GREAT GELID MASS
Subject(s): MEDUSA; MYTHOLOGY - CLASSICAL; PERSEUS;


Her sleeping head with its great gelid mass
of serpents torpidly astir
burned into the mirroring shield
a scathing image dire
as hated truth the mind accepts at last
and festers on.
I struck. The shield flashed bare.


Yet even as I lifted up the head
and started from that place
of gazing silences and terrored stone,
I thirsted to destroy.
None could have passed me then no garland-bearing girl,
no priest
or staring boy-and lived.




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