Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FEBRUARY SWANS, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FEBRUARY SWANS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Of the hundred swans in west bay
Last Line: Has glazed the window with frost.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Birds; February; Love; Solitude; Swans; Loneliness


Of the hundred swans in West Bay
not one flies south in winter.
They breathe the dust of snow
swirling in flumes across the water,
white as their whiteness;
bones slighted by hunger
they move through the clots of ice,
heads looped low and tucked to the wind,
looking for fish in the deep greenness of water.

Now in the country, far from the Bay,
from a dark room I see a swan gliding
down the street, larger than a car, silent.
She'll need a fish the size of a human
to feed her hunger, so far from the water.
But there's nothing to eat between those snowbanks.
She looks toward my window. I think:
Go back to the Bay, beautiful thing,
it was thirty below last night.
We gaze at each other until my breath
has glazed the window with frost.





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