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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE TRANSIT, by KATHLEEN JESSIE RAINE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: It was as if the ring had gone from the horizon
Last Line: But for the space of a thought it was as if it seemed.
Subject(s): Earth; Music & Musicians; World
First Line: It was as if the ring had gone from the horizon
Last Line: But for the space of a thought it was as if it seemed.
Subject(s): Earth; Music & Musicians; World
It was as if the ring had gone from the horizon
And waves had overflowed the edges of the world.
It was as if the eleven swans flew over.
It was like sound singing along wires,
An overheard humming message that does not concern us,
Word travelling from the one who speaks to the one who hears.
The staves of the world's music meet at infinity,
And telegraph posts, the bars of space and time,
Drop beyond the convexity of earth
Carrying the music that circles the Great Year.
To say that the word was ever here and now
Or even that I imagined such a transit
Would be to bind a stone to the current air, to founder
Fleeting Galatea's murmuring shell.
But for the space of a thought it was as if it seemed.
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GEOMETAPHYSICS by MARGARET AVISON
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SOPHISTICATION by CONRAD AIKEN
I SEE CHILE IN MY REARVIEW MIRROR by AGHA SHAHID ALI
WASHING OUR HANDS OF THE REST OF AMERICA by MARVIN BELL
THE EARTH IS A LIVING THING by LUCILLE CLIFTON
A MESSAGE TO MICHAEL by KATHLEEN JESSIE RAINE