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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ISOLATIONIST, by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE Poet's Biography
First Line: When the many move, the man
Last Line: While he sits with gloved hands in a buttoned confusion.
Alternate Author Name(s): Page, P. K.
Subject(s): Absence; Solitude; Separation; Isolation; Loneliness
First Line: When the many move, the man
Last Line: While he sits with gloved hands in a buttoned confusion.
Alternate Author Name(s): Page, P. K.
Subject(s): Absence; Solitude; Separation; Isolation; Loneliness
When the many move, the man
in the cubicle of content
cowers, suddenly discovered, suddenly rent
by the reality of crowds.
He has trained the climbing vine,
written "roses" on his ledger,
lived like a saint and finds himself a leper.
Immaculate of belief and violent on Mondays,
thinking no evil and thanking no second party
he has leaned in the evenings on the low-lipped window
and learned of his saintliness from outlines of lovers.
Now lovers leap the sash and the many winnow
his penny bank of wisdom and set it swirling
down the unclogged drain in the hidden scullery.
People take sudden shape and are suddenly human,
smash walls, uproot chairs and juggle cutlery
while he sits with gloved hands in a buttoned confusion.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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IN ABEYANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV
IN A VACANT HOUSE by PHILIP LEVINE
SUNDAY ALONE IN A FIFTH FLOOR APARTMENT, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS
SILENCE LIKE COOL SAND by PAT MORA
THE HONEY BEAR by EILEEN MYLES
THE STENOGRAPHERS by PATRICIA KATHLEEN PAGE