|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MOUNTAIN LAUREL, by CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH Poet's Biography First Line: Like the beating heart of a bird caught and held in the hand Last Line: Sweet . . . Sweet as the laurel . . . Bitter sharp as pain. Subject(s): Laurels | |||
Like the beating heart of a bird caught and held in the hand, Memories move under the five fingers of the mind: The bitter biting taste of the alien tamarind; The flowing inflexible hardness of sun-dried sea-sand; The planes of a familiar face, wrinkled and weather-tanned; The tones of a familiar voice, firm but completely kind, And the scent of mountain laurel where little footpaths wind Following the turbulent water-ways of a mountain land. The last is the strangest of all . . . to wake under the Southern Cross With the sweet smoke of the laurel blowing through the brain Stronger than jungle-ginger and the rotting jungle-moss, Or the evil smell of orchids distilling the monsoon rain To the odor of death . . . waking with a clinging sense of loss, Sweet . . . sweet as the laurel . . . bitter sharp as pain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEVERAL VOICES OUT OF A CLOUD by LOUISE BOGAN THE LAURELS ARE FELLED by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE INSTRUCTION by JOHN DRINKWATER THE LAURELS ARE LAID NOW by MAY FOLWELL HOISINGTON IF HOPE OF A LAUREL by RAYMOND DE LA TAILHDE HE ATE THE LAUREL AND IS MAD by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY SEVERAL VOICES OUT OF A CLOUD by LOUISE BOGAN BLOOD by CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH CONTRAST by CHARLES HENRY MACKINTOSH |
| |