|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
EARLY CHRONOLOGY, by SIEGFRIED SASSOON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Slowly the daylight left our listening faces
Last Line: I thought she had a pre-dynastic look.
Subject(s): Archeology; Teaching & Teachers
First Line: Slowly the daylight left our listening faces
Last Line: I thought she had a pre-dynastic look.
Subject(s): Archeology; Teaching & Teachers
SLOWLY the daylight left our listening faces.
Professor Brown with level baritone
Discoursed into the dusk.
Five thousand years
He guided us through scientific spaces
Of excavated History; till the lone
Roads of research grew blurred; and in our ears
Time was the rumoured tongues of vanished races,
And Thought a chartless Age of Ice and Stone.
The story ended. Then the darkened air
Flowered as he lit his pipe; an aureole glowed
Enwreathed with smoke; the moment's match-light showed
His rosy face, broad brow, and smooth grey hair,
Backed by the crowded book-shelves.
In his wake
An archæologist began to make
Assumptions about aqueducts (he quoted
Professor Sandstorm's book); and soon they floated
Through dessicated forests; mangled myths;
And argued easily round megaliths.
Beyond the college garden something glinted;
A copper moon climbed clear above the trees.
Some Lydian coin? ... Professor Brown agrees
That copper coins were in that culture minted;
But, as her whitening way aloft she took,
I thought she had a pre-dynastic look.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
THE CORRESPONDENCE-SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR SAYS GOODBYE TO HIS POETRY STUDENTS by GALWAY KINNELL
GRATITUDE TO OLD TEACHERS by ROBERT BLY
TWO RAMAGES FOR OLD MASTERS by ROBERT BLY
OEDIPUS TYRANNUS by JOHN CIARDI
ON FLUNKING A NICE BOY OUT OF SCHOOL by JOHN CIARDI
HER MONOLOGUE OF DARK CREPE WITH EDGES OF LIGHT by NORMAN DUBIE
OF POLITICS, & ART by NORMAN DUBIE