Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NINETY-NINE IN THE SHADE, by ROSSITER JOHNSON Poet's Biography First Line: O for a lodge in a garden of cucumbers! Last Line: And deepens the chill of its dark-running wave. Subject(s): Cold; Heat; Weather | ||||||||
O FOR a lodge in a garden of cucumbers! O for an iceberg or two at control! O for a vale which at mid-day the dew cumbers! O for a pleasure-trip up to the pole! O for a little one-story thermometer, With nothing but zeroes all ranged in a row! O for a big double-barreled hygrometer, To measure this moisture that rolls from my brow! O that this cold world were twenty times colder! (That's irony red-hot it seemeth to me); O for a turn of its dreaded cold shoulder! O what a comfort an ague would be! O for a grotto frost-lined and rill-riven, Scooped in the rock under cataract vast! O for a winter of discontent even! O for wet blankets judiciously cast! O for a soda-fount spouting up boldly From every hot lamp-post against the hot sky! O for proud maiden to look on me coldly, Freezing my soul with a glance of her eye! Then O for a draught from a cup of cold pizen, And O for a resting-place in the cold grave! With a bath in the Styx where the thick shadow lies on And deepens the chill of its dark-running wave. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FARMER'S BOY: AUTUMN by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD HOW TO FORETELL A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER by TED KOOSER LEAVING BUFFALO by CHARLES MARTIN WHEN THE WEATHER CHANGES TO WARM, THE BOYS DRIVE SHIRTLESS by MARY JO BANG THE LIFE OF TOWNS: ONE-MAN TOWN by ANNE CARSON POWER FAILURE by MADELINE DEFREES THE CITY OF THE OLESHA FRUIT by NORMAN DUBIE FRAGMENTS WRITTEN WHILE TRAVELING...A MIDWESTERN HEAT WAVE by JAMES GALVIN |
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