Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUBJUNCTIVE, by ELIZABETH JANE COATSWORTH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUBJUNCTIVE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Suppose marie antoinette had come to wiscasset
Last Line: And herself going milking with a silver milking pail.
Alternate Author Name(s): Beston, Henry, Mrs.
Subject(s): Maine (state); Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France


(There is a tradition in Wiscasset, Maine, that a house
was bought there as a refuge for Marie Antoinette.)

Suppose Marie Antoinette had come to Wiscasset,
Escaped from Paris, escaped from violence, escaped from fear,
Would she have lived soberly and quietly,
Talking to the women in the square white houses here?

Where they saw gray water, she would have seen steel flashing,
Where they saw autumn leaves, blood she would have seen.
The shivering white birches would have seemed like frightened ladies,
Where the Wiscasset eyes found only moving green.

And when she saw the women go out into the barnyards
Then she would have felt her tired heart fail,
Remembering the Trianon and a dress of flowered satin,
And herself going milking with a silver milking pail.





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