Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE MOUNTAIN, by HAYDEN CARRUTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Black summer, black vermont. Who sees Last Line: Really there? Subject(s): Mountain Life - Vermont; Vermont | ||||||||
Black summer, black Vermont. Who sees this mountain rising nearby in the darkness? But we know it there. On the other side in a black street of a black city a man who is probably black carries a Thompson submachine gun, and don't tell me how that feels who carried one two years in Italy; blunt-barreled power, smooth simple unfailing mechanism -- the only gun whose recoil tugs you forward, toward the target, almost like love. Separated by this immense hill we share nevertheless a certain knowledge of tactics and a common attitude toward reality. Flickering neon, like moonlight in beech leaves, is fine camouflage. To destroy can be beautiful. I remember Mussolini's bombed statues by the dopo lavoro pavilion, thick monsters transformed to elegance by their broken heads and cut-off arms. Let the city be transformed. A man with a submachine gun is invulnerable, the sniper's sharp little steel or the fist of a grenade always finds him surprised. Hey, look out, man! What you trying to do, get yourself killed? They're everywhere, everywhere, hear? -- the night's full of them and they're looking for a dead nigger -- so watch it, go on fox feet and listen like a bat: remember everything I told you. You got to be smart enough for both of us now. But are you there? Are you really there? Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ORATION: HALF-MOON IN VERMONT by NORMAN DUBIE THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S ANNUAL by NORMAN DUBIE THE CROWS AT 3 A.M. by STANLEY PLUMLY ALBANY BUS STATION by RUTH STONE FALL COMES IN BACK-COUNTRY VERMONT by ROBERT PENN WARREN A SNOW-STORM; SCENE IN A VERMONT WINTER by CHARLES GAMAGE EASTMAN A VERMONT 'DONATION' by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY A VERMONT AUCTIONEER by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH A REAL HARD TIME BEFORE' by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE WORLD AS WILL AND REPRESENTATION' by HAYDEN CARRUTH A POST-IMPRESSIONIST SUSURRATION FOR THE FIRST OF NOVEMBER by HAYDEN CARRUTH |
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