Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SOUL OF THINGS, by EDITH MATILDA THOMAS Poet's Biography First Line: Day by day the soul of things / up its countless ladders springs Last Line: Up its countless ladders springs. Subject(s): Flowers; Soul | ||||||||
DAY by day the soul of things Up its countless ladders springs, Fleeting back to whence it came, -- Inviolate, etherial flame! I have pierced its changing shapes, Coils and turnings, deft escapes! Up yon swaying shaft it stole, Of the scarlet gladiole. First, the lowest bud it caught, And with fire its chalice fraught; Then, with aspiration new, To the bloom above withdrew. Every flower, thus bereft, Like a quenched brand was left, -- Quickly into ashes fell When the Genius fled its cell! On the morrow it will rest In the topmost blossom-crest; Waving thence its light adieus, Some unseen way it pursues. Airy pyramid of grass At its motion yields a pass. Through the wind-loved wheat it flows, Up the tufted sedge-flower goes, Scales the foxglove's leaning spire, Fans the wild lobelia's fire, Where beside the pool it flashes; And the slender vervain's lashes, By the climbing spirit swayed, All their purple length unbraid. Thus the soul of blooming things Up its countless ladders springs. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRUEL FALCON by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE WHOLE SOUL by PHILIP LEVINE I KNOW MY SOUL by CLAUDE MCKAY HONORING THE SAND; IN MEMORY OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL by ROBERT BLY THE CHINESE PEAKS; FOR DONALD HALL by ROBERT BLY THE LIFE OF TOWNS: TOWN OF THE EXHUMATION by ANNE CARSON |
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