Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CHIMNEY-SWEEP by CALE YOUNG RICE

First Line: FALLEN LEAVES SKITTER FLEET
Last Line: AND EVER CLEAN THE HOUSE OF WOE!
Subject(s): CHIMNEY SWEEPERS AND CHIMNEYS; LIFE; LOVE; MOON; TIME;

Fallen leaves skitter fleet
And elf-like down the street.
Winds have blown the moon awry,
It hangs a half-thing in the sky;
A sorry chimney-pot thing,
Sooty silver in a ring.
Time, the sweep, has brushed away
Half of it.... Alack-a-day!
Nothing's safe from the doom
Of Time's broom.

Nothing -- neither love nor life,
Not friend, not wife!
Time, ruthless chimney-sweep,
Smudges all we would keep.
After him we must go
And ever clean the house of woe!



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