WITH an elephant to ride upon—"with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes," she shall outdistance calamity anywhere she goes. Speed is not in her mind inseparable from carpets. Locomotion arose in the shape of an elephant; she clambered up and chose to travel laboriously. So far as magic carpets are concerned, she knows that although the semblance of speed may attach to scare-crows of æsthetic procedure, the substance of it is embodied in such of those tough-grained animals as have outstripped man's whim to suppose them ephemera, and have earned that fruit of their ability to endure blows, which dubs them prosaic necessities—not curios. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LITANY OF THE DARK PEOPLE by COUNTEE CULLEN FRAGMENTARY BLUE by ROBERT FROST THE CENTER OF GRAVITY by DAVID IGNATOW SYMPATHY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON VILLANELLE OF CHANGE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON DEATH SNIPS PROUD MEN by CARL SANDBURG DEXTER GORDON: COPENHAGEN/AVERY FISHER HALL by KAREN SWENSON |