Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE QUEEN OF THE WAX DOLLS, by JAMES RYDER RANDALL Poet's Biography First Line: Twas in the old church yard I told you all Last Line: A skeptic might believe it! Subject(s): Change; Indifference; Love - Complaints | ||||||||
'TWAS in the old church yard I told you all, Beneath the Norway pine; There, by your mother's grave, I thought to call That poor lost mother mine. I saw you bend above an orphan child To kiss its winsome face; This woman, quoth I, is all undefiled, A miracle of grace. The world could never guess your riddle quite, Nor shake your soft repose; The same meek orbs that shone upon the night, Were stars when morning rose. O hypocrite! your cool, Antarctic sighs Make memory an eclipse; I feel the serpent from those poisoned eyes Browsing upon my lips. You changed. You stumbled from the better path; You robed your vows on biers; And now my lexicon of love and wrath Is syllabled with tears. You changed! Your eyes are purple-lidded beads, Your hair a coil of flax, And the cold splendor of your shape recedes Into a mold of wax! O wormwood! that a thing of wax and wire Could make me love it so; I, with a Hecla-heart and nerve of fire, Gasping amid that snow. And now, repenting, you would be my wife, Would pawn your troth to me Poor Doll! beyond the icebergs of your life There throbs no open sea! I sought it once, and lo! my former self Is shipwrecked in the quest. See the impassioned Franklin, with his pelf, Dead on your gelid breast. You scream'tis but a delicate doll's cry A trick, as all perceive it; They say you're stuffed with sawdustthough a lie, A skeptic might believe it! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TALKING RICHARD WILSON BLUES, BY RICHARD CLAY WILSON by DENIS JOHNSON THE BRIDGE by ALEXANDER ANDERSON THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW by SABINE BARING-GOULD MISGIVINGS by WILLIAM MATTHEWS THROUGH AGONY: 1 by CLAUDE MCKAY HEMATITE HEIRLOOM LIVES ON (MAYBE DECEMBER 1980) by ALICE NOTLEY QUICK AND BITTER by YEHUDA AMICHAI JOHN PELHAM by JAMES RYDER RANDALL |
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