Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CHOICE, by ELIZABETH COLTER First Line: Last week I talked to a sailor Last Line: "and I answered -- ""poetry."" . . ." | ||||||||
Last week I talked to a sailor, Who was young and wild and strong; (Or, rather, he talked and I listened,) For an hour, perhaps -- not long. And Jens, whom I'd promised to marry But an hour or two before -- Jens, who has lived all his stunted life On a leaf-enshrouded shore, Jens passed at a little distance, And I knew that he frowned at me; But I sat very still, and I listened, While the sailor talked of the sea. He used strange words that I do not know -- But I saw brown feet on alien sand; His eyes were hot with the lure of quest -- And he said I could not understand -- But I saw wide spaces and flying spume, And ships in the lone black nights; I saw with a poignance almost pain The passing of dim green lights: I heard the wail of following gulls, I felt the whip of the cold white fog, And I saw a man in a dripping slicker Bending over a log -- But I shall marry Jens, you know, And live in a prairie town, Where never a fog-horn blares in the morning, And never a ship goes down -- Goes down to the sea with her singing crew. With her anchors up, with her sails unfurled, Where never a woman waits like stone For a man on the rim of the world. And he asked me, Jens, I mean, of course, What the sailor said to me, And what was the thing he talked about, And I answered -- "poetry." . . . | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONRAD AT TWILIGHT by JOHN CROWE RANSOM A CORN SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE GREENWOOD SHRIFT; GEORGE III AND A DYING WOMAN IN WINDSOR FOREST by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE SNAIL by ANTOINE VINCENT ARNAULT |
|