Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WANDERER; A ROCOCO STUDY: SOOTHSAY, by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WANDERER; A ROCOCO STUDY: SOOTHSAY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Eight days went by, eight days
Last Line: "and this shall be as it is spoken."
Subject(s): Wandering & Wanderers


Eight days went by, eight days
Comforted by no nights, until finally:
"Would you behold yourself old, beloved?"
I was pierced, yet I consented gladly
For I knew it could not be otherwise.
And she -- "Behold yourself old!
Sustained in strength, wielding might in gript surges!
Not bodying the sun in weak leaps
But holding way over rockish men
With fern-free fingers on their little crags,
Their hollows, the new Atlas, to bear them
For pride and for mockery! Behold
Yourself old! winding with slow might --
A vine among oaks -- to the thin tops:
Leaving the leafless leaved,
Bearing purple clusters! Behold
Yourself old! birds are behind you.
You are the wind coming that stills birds,
Shakes the leaves in booming polyphony --
Slow winning high way amid the knocking
Of boughs, evenly crescendo,
The din and bellow of the male wind!
Leap then from forest into foam!
Lash about from low into high flames
Tipping sound, the female chorus --
Linking all lions, all twitterings
To make them nothing! Behold yourself old!"
As I made to answer she continued,
A little wistfully yet in a voice clear cut:
"Good is my over lip and evil
My under lip to you henceforth:
For I have taken your soul between my two hands
And this shall be as it is spoken."





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