Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ANNUNCIATION by LOLA RIDGE

First Line: BUT FOR THE VIOLETS
Last Line: DESPERATELY BUTTING AGAINST THE CONCRETE.
Subject(s): ANNUNCIATION, THE; FLOWERS; VIOLETS;

But for the violets . . .
and earth a gigantic bulb battened down
with stone . . .
violets
at which the wind
makes little shambling rushes,
unsteady wind,
milk-warm and dewy at the mouth,
stumbling and rising again,
smelling of the violets . . .
and but for the wind
scattering
such scented hearsay,
one might not veer
on this unleavened stone
to the sharp pull of earth
at tension with the violets --
one might hurry on unknowing over the cancelled spring,
spring . . . horned green
and curly as a ram's head . . .
desperately butting against the concrete.



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