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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO MONTEAGLE by HARRY HARRISON KROLL

First Line: A NEARLY EMPTY HIGHWAY
Last Line: AND I AM AGAIN COME TO MONTEAGLE.
Subject(s): CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS; MONTEAGLE, TENNESSEE;

A nearly empty highway
Furls beneath me
In a ribbon of polished platinum
As I go through a valley
Done in golds and burnt greens and rich light
Toward Cumberland.

The mountain stands
In massive remoteness
Against a porcelain sky:
Ash-blue and veiled
Like an old dream draped in memory gauze.

The lonely call of the dove,
The slow cry of a quail,
And the ceaseless song of harvest flies --
Of such is the music of
Deep summer
In wood and open field.

Corn fragrances and smell of hay
Meet in heat waves over the land.

An old mountain man,
A tall exquisite mountain girl,
A stark cabin with gaunt eyes and hollow mouth --
I see them in the blur of my hurry.
Then the long climb up the mountain,
With fleeting etchings of peaceful distances,
And I am again come to Monteagle.



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