Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ADAM'S OFF OX, by WALT MASON Poet's Biography First Line: The world is old, the man still talks, at Last Line: "but his ""off ox"" has come to stay; we hear it quoted every day." Subject(s): Old Age | ||||||||
THE world is old, the man still talks, at times, of Adam's starboard ox. When any man's profoundly dead, of him it's usually said, by folks on the adjacent blocks, that he's as dead as Adam's ox. And if a stranger you shall see, and you are asked who he may be, you say, "I give it up, old sox; I know him not from Adam's ox." You say the "off ox," all the time, but that won't fit into this rhyme. Oh, famous beast, immortal ox, whose shade still on this footstool walks! No other brute, since time began, no mouse or mule or mole or man, thus effortless has won renown, a fame the ages cannot down! How did you play your bovine game, that you have earned this deathless fame? We hear no word of Adam's hog, of Adam's mule, of Adam's dog; we've no description of his stove, or of the motor car he drove, or of his watch or Sunday hat, or his imported Maltese cat, but his "off ox" has come to stay; we hear it quoted every day. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT EIGHTY I CHANGE MY VIEW by DAVID IGNATOW FAWN'S FOSTER-MOTHER by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE DEER LAY DOWN THEIR BONES by ROBINSON JEFFERS OLD BLACK MEN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A WINTER ODE TO THE OLD MEN OF LUMMUS PARK, / MIAMI, FLORIDA by DONALD JUSTICE AFTER A LINE BY JOHN PEALE BISHOP by DONALD JUSTICE TO HER BODY, AGAINST TIME by ROBERT KELLY |
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