|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
STREET CORNER COLLEGE, by KENNETH PATCHEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Next year the grave grass will cover us
Last Line: Cold stars and the whores.
Subject(s): Social Problems; Wandering & Wanderers; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes
First Line: Next year the grave grass will cover us
Last Line: Cold stars and the whores.
Subject(s): Social Problems; Wandering & Wanderers; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes
Next year the grave grass will cover us.
We stand now, and laugh;
Watching the girls go by;
Betting on slow horses; drinking cheap gin.
We have nothing to do; nowhere to go; nobody.
Last year was a year ago; nothing more.
We weren't younger then; nor older now.
We manage to have the look the young men have;
We feel nothing behind our faces, one way or other.
We shall probably not be quite dead when we die.
We were never anything all the way; not even soldiers.
We are the insulted, brother, the desolate boys.
Sleepwalkers in a dark and terrible land,
Where solitude is a dirty knife at out throats.
Cold stars watch us, chum
Cold stars and the whores.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
BUMS, ON WAKING by JAMES DICKEY
A FOLK SINGER OF THE THIRTIES by JAMES DICKEY
WANDERER IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY by CLARENCE MAJOR
THE WANDERER by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN
LONG GONE by STERLING ALLEN BROWN
BLACK SHEEP by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON
A VAGABOND SONG by BLISS CARMAN
A LETTER ON THE USE OF MACHINE GUNS AT WEDDINGS by KENNETH PATCHEN