Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CONTRADICTORY, by ALICE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: We contradictory creatures Last Line: Naked and cold, and desolate enough. Subject(s): Human Behavior | ||||||||
WE contradictory creatures Have something in us alien to our birth, That doth suffuse us with the infinite, While downward through our natures Run adverse thoughts, that only find delight In the poor perishable things of earth. Blindly we feel about Our little circle, -- ever on the quest Of knowledge, which is only, at the best, Pushing the boundaries of our ignorance out. But while we know all things are miracles, And that we cannot set An ear of corn, nor tell a blade of grass The way to grow, our vanity o'erswells The limit of our wisdom, and we yet Audaciously o'erpass This narrow promontory Of low, dark land, into the unseen glory, And with unhallowed zeal Unto our fellow-men God's judgments deal. Sometimes along the gloom We meet a traveler, striking hands with whom, Maketh a little sweet and tender light To bless our sight, And change the clouds around us and above Into celestial shapes, -- and this is love. Morn cometh, trailing storms, Even while she wakes a thousand grateful psalms And with her golden calms All the wide valley fills; Darkly they lie below The purple fire, -- the glow, Where, on the high tops of the eastern hills, She rests her cloudy arms. And we are like the morning, -- heavenly light Blowing about our heads, and th' dumb night Before us and behind us; ceaseless ills Make up our years; and as from off the hills The white mists melt, and leave them bare and rough, So melt from us the fancies of our youth Until we stand against the last black truth Naked and cold, and desolate enough. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL END OF THE WORLD by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE ANSWER by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE BROKEN BALANCE by ROBINSON JEFFERS TIME OF DISTURBANCE by ROBINSON JEFFERS SEVEN STREAMS OF NEVIS by GALWAY KINNELL THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A SPINSTER'S STINT by ALICE CARY |
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