Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ROOMS, by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER Poet's Biography First Line: There is nothing on earth more lonely than a room Last Line: And knows that room is life, will pass unmoved through death. Subject(s): Cemeteries; Death; Graves; Solitude; Graveyards; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones; Loneliness | ||||||||
There is nothing on earth more lonely than a room; Outdoors are stately silent places, Filled with unchanging friendly faces, Sharing our triumph or our doom. But here where four flat walls share everything With the sunlight filtering through the window-panes, Life seems a row of black and polished grains Listlessly slipping down an endless string. Death paces up and down in each room we have; Each room is a tabernacle filled with little deaths. Pale drifting moments! Their enfeebled breaths Only stirred once, then settled in the grave. And over them all there broods one changeless thought, That we too in our time must so pass out; As passes the light across the walls, without Full knowledge of the goal it daily sought. Impulse within a room swings to-and-fro, Shaping in letters hard and firm and clear, What all the world that scorns and slips us here Will never stop to read and never know: "Seek God not in the forest but the cell;" This is the lesson that our rooms can say. And though your tomb be open every day, There may be resurrection-dawns to tell. Who learns to think in rooms will conquer thought; Who looks at walls will learn of patience' self; Who keeps a few books, oft-read, on a shelf Will enter in a kingdom safe, unbought. Who warms his hands at a grate's glowing breath Will find the warmth that runs through other hands. Who enters in a room and understands And knows that room is life, will pass unmoved through death. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN ABEYANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV IN A VACANT HOUSE by PHILIP LEVINE SUNDAY ALONE IN A FIFTH FLOOR APARTMENT, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS SILENCE LIKE COOL SAND by PAT MORA THE HONEY BEAR by EILEEN MYLES ARIZONA POEMS: 2. MEXICAN QUARTER by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER |
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