Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ATAVISM, by GRACE BROWN PUTNAM


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ATAVISM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This mad longing, this wild hunger
Last Line: On creation's golden strings.
Subject(s): Ancestry & Ancestors; Creation


This mad longing, this wild hunger,
Are they but an ugly scar
From the days when life was younger,
Left to prove us what we are?

Left to prove that we inherit
From the tiger and the ape,
That behind each hard-won merit
Lurks a savage, crouching shape?

Still, behind the brainpan shallow,
Farther back than primal slime,
Is a sound that yet shall hallow
Man's long climb through space and time;

Back of fang and cruel fingers,
Softly rustle angel wings,
And the hymn of heaven lingers
On Creation's golden strings.





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