Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PALE COUNTRY, by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PALE COUNTRY, by                    
First Line: I who thus have brought life down
Last Line: I'll take its measure with my thumb.
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


I who thus have brought life down
To a question and a frown,

Resolving all the savage Spring
The bud unburst, the fledgling wing

To a gray round of desk and bell,
A universe within a cell,

Shall doubtless as the moments crawl
See Death contract and grow as small

As some poor human wish to sleep
Beyond the need to rise and weep.

I shall lose in coming, going,
That pale country past all knowing,

Shrivel it with stare and guess,
Map it out with "no" and "yes,"

And consume in arguments
The vast lines of its reticence.

As with life, when Death shall come,
I'll take its measure with my thumb.





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