Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE EXPLORATION OF OLIVER, by DOROTHY E. REID


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE EXPLORATION OF OLIVER, by                    
First Line: Something was in the air -- he didn't know
Last Line: Hailing the hero home, hailing the viking.
Subject(s): Explorers; Vikings; Exploring; Discovery; Discoverers


I

Something was in the air -- he didn't know
Whether it was the rain, or spring, or, stranger,
Something that hinted sharp of a lurking danger
New these twenty years since, but it was so.
There was the selfsame street he was wont to go
Trudging along, replete with cheerful greetings,
There were the usual commonplace words and meetings
Ranged for his homeward journey all in a row.
Didn't he turn, though, didn't he cross a byway
Into a street he never had seen before?
Three fat barbers looked at their clocks and swore
They must be wrong, when they missed his face in the highway.
And here was Oliver, bungling along in his shy way,
Five steps out of his road, by a grocery store.

II

Here he was going, gingerly stepping ahead.
Through a new street? A world, with everything in it
Freshly created for Oliver's eyes that minute
Out of a hundred things he had heard and read.
Gables rose incredibly tall, and fled
Into a sky incredibly far away;
Children or fairies called to him from their play.
Was it a princess, hoeing a tulip bed?
And see, swingeing the sunset like a cloak,
A coat flung crosswise over a jaunty shoulder.
Oliver's heart perked up, and his eyes grew bolder;
Something new in Oliver stirred and woke,
Something pierced his mind like a dagger stroke . . .
He swung his arms. The evening was growing colder.

III

Chilly it was, and the end of the street in sight,
And one lamp flickering back of a dingy pane;
Something was in the air -- it must be rain.
Oliver buttoned his overcoat collar tight,
Turned at the corner, and with him turned the night,
Into the street where nothing ever occurred.
Oliver's hand shot up with a cheerful word
Greeting a passing neighbor under a light.
One block more, and he entered an open gate;
Dinner was warm on the stove, and a clock was striking,
Crisp brown liver and bacon, done to his liking --
Wasn't he hungry, though, and wasn't he late!
Oliver's wife piled hominy on his plate,
Hailing the hero home, hailing the Viking.





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