![]() |
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE GARDEN AGAIN, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: The romans, retreating from the wilderness Last Line: A compost of leaves and wings. Subject(s): Burma; Imperialism | |||
The Romans retreating from the wilderness of Britain four centuries after Christ, left mosaic faces laced gray with lichens, left their stones, dressed and ordered as soldiers in the rain. In downtown Rangoon, a leftover edifice of empire sprouts trees from its Victorian brick while a mile away crowds swirl colors skirting the gilded pinnacles of the Shwedagon Pagoda. In the countryside, the woven bamboo houses pour dust-brown children from window and door surrounding a church's brick fortress where swifts skim through windows stained only by sunset. At the end of sovereignty, just as the sea gardens a wreck with coral and anemones, the emptiness of empire fills up, a compost of leaves and wings. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COLONISATION IN REVERSE by SIMONE LOUISE BENNETT RECESSIONAL by RUDYARD KIPLING THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN by RUDYARD KIPLING CHANT OF LAMENTATION by HAUNANI-KAY TRASK BALLADE OF EXPANSION by HILDA JOHNSON FRESCO: DEPARTURE FOR AN IMPERIALIST WAR by THOMAS MCGRATH ODE ON THE OPENING OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE, MAY 10,1893 by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907) THE IMPERIAL PRAYERS by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR IMPERIALISM by BERTRAND SHADWELL |
|