Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SHOULD I SUDDENLY by MARY PRUDENCE MORTON

First Line: SHOULD I SUDDENLY CALL YOU BEAUTIFUL
Last Line: OH, BEAUTIFUL, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?
Subject(s): BEAUTY;
Should I suddenly call you beautiful
Would you understand me and be humble
Before yourself? For I would give to you
In that one word all that is love, to me.

You would be as a swift breath of music
That shatters itself against perfection;
As a hand that curves to break a flower,
Unflexes, and moves away, still empty;

A lonely word that whips tears to the eyes
In its wild agony for loveliness,
In hopeless yearning for the half attained ...
Oh, beautiful, do you understand me?



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