Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE EPIPHANY OF THE MAD, by JOHN COWPER POWYS Poet's Biography First Line: I am the voice of the outcast things Last Line: Approach and cleansed are. Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Death; Moon; Singing & Singers; Voices; Estrangement; Outcasts; Dead, The | ||||||||
I am the voice of the outcast things, The refuse and the drift. What the waves wash up and the rivers spurn And the Golgothas of the cities burn, For these my song I lift. I sing in dust; I sing in mire; I sing in slag and silt; I sing in the reek of the rubble-fire; I sing where sewers are spilt; I sing where the paupers have their grave; I sing where abortions lie; I sing where the mad-house nettles wave; I sing where the hearse goes by. And all my tune is taught by the Moon; For the Moon looks down on all; And the song I sing of each outcast thing Is a mad Moon-madrigal. But all my thoughts as I sing this tune Are about a little star That soon or late, that late or soon, The evilest things beneath the moon Approach and cleansed are. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND |
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