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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
YOUTH PENETRANT, by CONRAD AIKEN Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I shall grow calm in a little while Last Line: I show life up to you . . . And smile! Subject(s): Youth | |||
I SHALL grow calm in a little while, But now, youth yearns in me to laugh; Cruel as cinematograph I show life up to you . . . and smile. I shall be calm in a little space, -- The blood grows quieter with the years; I shall be tenderer, then, to tears, And look more kindly on life's face. Our hearts grow mellow nearing death -- Like apples touched with autumn breath --; When the dusk falls and day is done We look more wistfully on the sun, Loving his last warmth on our cheek; We can be kind when we are weak. I shall be calm in a little while, But now, youth yearns in me to laugh; Cruel as cinematograph I show life up to you . . . and smile. Merciless is this black and white, A cold inquisitorial light; Baleful, it makes all life seem base, Shows you the flesh of every face; Only the music makes it seem So brightly glamorous, so.like dream. . . Let the musician cease to play, Here's naught but black and white and grey, Reality, cold, mechanical, -- The truth -- a hideous spectacle! . . Cruel as cinematograph I show life up to you . . . and laugh; For that is youth's prerogative: To see life coldly through brave eyes, To strip life of its lovely lies, And, careless of the dead, to live. There is yet time, when I grow old, When the blood in me is slow and cold, To look on life with wistful gaze, To see life through a soft bright haze; -- Singing more sweetly, as they use Who are half death's, and hourly lose The light that fades from misting eyes, So, praise life in most passionate wise; For in their clouded minds they dream The whole day, though it was but dun, Made glorious by the death of sun, -- Death-fires the fires of life they deem. Through mist they wander, singing sweet; -- Singing of life to make them brave, They hear death digging each his grave, They feel his cold net touch their feet. . . Half-lives, they only half-life sing, The tender light their dim eyes see; They reach pale hands to earth and cling, Grief gives their song intensity. . . I shall be calm in a little while, But now, youth yearns in me to laugh: Cruel as cinematograph I show life up to you . . . and smile! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BETWEEN THE WARS by ROBERT HASS THE GOLDEN SHOVEL by TERRANCE HAYES ALONG WITH YOUTH by ERNEST HEMINGWAY |
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