Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PENELOPE, by MARY THERESE MADELEVA


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PENELOPE, by                    
First Line: Penelope never has raveled as I have raveled
Last Line: Under the sun.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wolff, Mary Evaline
Subject(s): Penelope (mythology)


Penelope never has raveled as I have raveled;
She never has fashioned the fabrics that I have spun;
And neither her heart nor her lover has traveled as mine has traveled
Under the sun.

Her web of delay, deliberate, passionate, splendid,
Was tense with allurement, I doubt not; was wet with tears;
But love found it raveled, unfinished -- a burial robe -- and ended
Those piteous years.

My fingers run wildly through warps of bewildering wonder,
Or dream over woof of caught silence or sudden song;
They tighten on patterns of laughter or fear that is stricken thunder! --
O Love, how long?

Is it naught that I pause in my web as yon suitor woos me,
That I ravel at night with regret the design of day,
That loneliness sickens, grief dazes, and doubt pursues me
With You away?

With a lifetime of years do I lash myself to You and bind You,
Do I dare all the seas of the world without compass or star;
Past the lands of Calypso and Circe and Scylla I seek You and find You,
Be it never so far! --

So I fare on the deific pathway my Love has traveled
As I fashion the web that Penelope could not have spun,
And ravel the heavenly robe of delay that she could not have raveled
Under the sun.





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