Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WORDS, by LAURA M. BRADLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WORDS, by                    
First Line: Oh, what are words? And what can words convey?
Last Line: To catch our swift emotions on the wing.
Subject(s): Language; Sonnet (as Literary Form); Words; Vocabulary


Oh, what are words? And what can words convey?
Some tiny, dry and lifeless letters flung
In sequences to give each brain a tongue?
Poor harmless drudges harnessed to a shay?
To drag parched thoughts from some long yesterday?
Not so! But vibrant strains from music sung --
Eternal echoes! -- when the world was young
And prancing Pegasus emerged from clay;
Rare, polished jewels to set in Cloisonne;
Bright mist of stars that send their light among
Remote and shadowed planets; knives that stung
With bite of steel and freed us from decay.
Words are the lustrous, silver nets we fling
To catch our swift emotions on the wing.





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