Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, by WILLIAM ROBERT RODGERS Poet's Biography First Line: In that land all is, and nothing's ought Last Line: Though at night there is the smell of morning. Alternate Author Name(s): Rodgers, W. R. Subject(s): Nothingness; Nihilism; Voids | ||||||||
In that land all is and nothing's ought; No owners or notices, only birds; No walls anywhere, only lean wire of words Worming brokenly out from eaten thought; No oats growing, only ankle-lace grass Easing and not resenting the feet that pass; No enormous beasts, only names of them; No bones made, bans laid, or boons expected, No contracts, entails, hereditaments, Anything at all that might tie or hem. In that land all's lackadaisical; No lakes of coddled spawn, and no locked ponds Of settled purpose, no netted fishes; But only inkling streams and running fronds Fritillaried with dreams, weedy with wishes; No arrogant talk is heard, haggling phrase, But undertones, and hesitance, and haze; On clear days mountains of meaning are seen Humped high on the horizon; no one goes To con their meaning, no one cares or knows. In that land all's flat, indifferent; there Is neither springing house nor hanging tent, No aims are entertained, and nothing is meant, For there are no ends and no trends, no roads, Only follow your nose to anywhere. No one is born there, no one stays or dies, For it is a timeless land, it lies Between the act and the attrition, it Marks off bound from rebound, make from break, tit From tat, also today from tomorrow. No Cause there comes to term, but each departs Elsewhere to whelp its deeds, expel its darts; There are no homecomings, of course, no good-byes In that land, neither yearning nor scorning, Though at night there is the smell of morning. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VERS DE SOCI??T?? by PHILIP LARKIN AT THE GRAVE OF MY GUARDIAN ANGEL: ST. LOUIS CEMETERY, NEW ORLEANS by LARRY LEVIS CONTRA MORTEM: THE NOTHING I by HAYDEN CARRUTH CONTRA MORTEM: THE NOTHING II by HAYDEN CARRUTH NOTHING AND THE INCIDENT IN THE STREETS by GREGORY ORR POEM ABOUT NOTHING by GREGORY ORR THE LAST WISH by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON LOVE BEING ALL ONE by ROBERT FROST |
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