Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BUILDING SITE, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A BUILDING SITE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I do not doubt some paltry sheet
Last Line: Must take the valley road below.
Subject(s): Property; Possessions


I do not doubt some paltry sheet
Encircled with a rubber band
Sets forth in angles, dollars, feet,
How Cyrus Wentworth owns the land.

I only know the brutal spade
Has slaughtered my anemones,
And murderous axe and saw have made
A massacre among my trees.

I wonder does the title deed
Mention the river gleams afar,
That glimpse of where the cattle feed,
That view of where the willows are.

I wonder do the terms include
The sunshine on the hickory bark,
The twitter of the robin's brood,
The carol of the meadow lark.

How strange! A trail of sodden ink
Can seal to one dull man for aye
That granary of the bobolink,
That coppice where the squirrels play.

How strange! A lump of gold can buy
Delights that earth and heaven fill,
Those mellow ranges of the eye
From Morristown to Cooper Hill.

How passing strange! that one, half blind,
Alone to this fair crest may go,
While all remaining human kind
Must take the valley road below.





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