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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
COMMITTAL, by HELEN HARTNESS FLANDERS
First Line: A forest has small privacy
Last Line: Tense in the dark of night.
Subject(s): Winter
First Line: A forest has small privacy
Last Line: Tense in the dark of night.
Subject(s): Winter
A forest has small privacy
To shield her reticence
In winter, when her tragedies
Are plainest etched against
The white of snow; or carried high
Within unyielding blue.
What works its will and leaves its wrack
Is naked to the view.
A forest does not rock with woe
Within the wind that breaks
Across her heart; that ages it
And bends its youth. She takes
A storm with solemness and strength.
What winter has to say
She mutes with snow. The trees stand dumb
In non-committal gray.
Exuberant with leafing bush
And matting springtime flower
She wilfully combines to sing
A joyous sun-drenched hour.
A hush will fall in summer time
While her trees pause to wait
For autumn's riotous rich tang.
But Winter is her mate. ...
Winter, that holds her bound and tense;
Whose tale she would not speak:
Winter, who takes with violence
This forest, strong and weak.
Then are the chords of earth rung firm,
Then, closest. Song dies white
Or diamond-fired or rigidly
Tense in the dark of night.
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