Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HOW TO SWIM, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS Poet's Biography First Line: Twas many days with sam and jim Last Line: I learn at last that I can swim. Subject(s): Swimming & Swimmers | ||||||||
'Twas many days with Sam and Jim Before they taught me how to swim. A swimming collar, fat and wide, Around my timid neck was tied; I had a life-preserver on, And buoyant boards to float upon, And ventured out six feet or more From safety and the beckoning shore. I paddled in the shallows there With quite a bold, determined air, And got the motions to a T, As Jim and Sam did both agree; But, some way, spite of Sam and Jim, I never managed -- quite -- to -- swim. One day, worn out with these attempts, Discarding my accoutrements, I stood there, like the fool I am, All goose flesh, watching Jim and Sam; When, suddenly, they rushed ashore, And, heeding not my panic roar, They caught me up and carried me, Indignant, fighting to get free, Along a rustic bridge, to where The deepest, deadliest waters were, Then threw me in with warning grim: "You booby! Now it's sink or swim!" And it was swim. A splash! A scream! A frantic struggle with the stream! I waxed a demon in my wrath, But floundered on my watery path, And gasping, faint, too weak to stand, And blubbering, I reached the land. Thus -- tardy thanks to Sam and Jim, I learned at last the way to swim. And now, as I surrender me To some ecstatic, leaping sea, Or cleave the waters dark and cool Of heron-haunted forest pool, Or through the shining of some lake My liquid flashing course I take, I say, while wrapped in that delight, "Well, Jim was right, and Sam was right." And often, in these later days Of hustling twentieth-century ways, As from the shore I watch the tide Of life and labor deep and wide, Where fierce contentions clash and beat Along the current of the street, And in the ocean of the town I see full many a wreck go down, As, bound by timorous despair I stand aloof and idle there, The thought returns of Sam and Jim And how they made a coward swim. "Jump in!" I bid my shrinking soul, "Nor heed the waves that angry roll, Nor breakers, fierce howe'er they be; A man is lighter than the sea. Trust in your lungs and muscles stout And in God's ocean. Out! Swim out!" Then, as I venture to be brave And hurl my body on the wave, And pay no heed to my alarms, But use my feet and use my arms, I find my body instantly In liquid oneness with that sea, And -- thanks once more to Sam and Jim -- I learn at last that I can swim. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NOW THE CHILDREN ARE OLD ENOUGH by ANDREW MOTION STARING AT THE PACIFIC, AND SWIMMING IN IT by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER THE SWIMMER by JOHN CROWE RANSOM STILL ON WATER by KENNETH REXROTH A BATTLE SONG (WRITTEN IN THE WORLD WAR) by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS |
|