Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CLUE, by KATHLEEN JESSIE RAINE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CLUE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Only the virgin knows the life story
Last Line: And the old spinner ravels skeins of death.
Subject(s): Death; Life; Dead, The


Only the virgin knows the life story,
The myth implicit in the silk-spun bud
Whose leaves are the unopened pages of the heart.

The gossamer of her dream floats out across the night;
Its fragile thread upholds the somnambulist --
(Let none awaken my beloved, or she is lost)

When the angel came, she knew his face
And to the stranger asking a strange thing
Gave the answer predestined before time.

Young spiders weave at first their perfect webs,
Later, less certain, they weave worse.
Old age spins tattered cobwebs, rags and shreds.

Mater Dolorosa, at the end of a spent myth,
Remembering the past, but not the future,
Has lost her clue, like an old spider,

For time undoes us, darkness defaces
The figures of Penelope's night loom.
Revolving stars wind up the tenuous threads of day-dream
And the old spinner ravels skeins of death.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net