Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SPRING DAY: WALK, by AMY LOWELL



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SPRING DAY: WALK, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Over the street the white clouds meet, and sheer away without touching
Subject(s): Spring; Walking


Over the street the white clouds meet, and sheer away without touching.
On the sidewalks, boys are playing marbles. Glass marbles, with amber and blue
hearts, roll together and part with a sweet clashing noise. The boys strike them
with black and red striped agates. The glass marbles spit crimson when they are
hit, and slip into the gutters under rushing brown water. I smell tulips and
narcissus in the air, but there are no flowers anywhere, only white dust whipping
up the street, and a girl with a gay Spring hat and blowing skirts. The dust and
the wind flirt at her ankles and her neat, high-heeled patent leather shoes.
Tap, tap, the little heels pat the pavement, and the wind rustles among the
flowers on her hat.
A water-cart crawls slowly on the other side of the way. It is green and gay with
new paint, and rumbles contentedly, sprinkling clear water over the white dust.
Clear zigzagging water, which smells of tulips and narcissus.
The thickening branches make a pink grisaille against the blue sky.
Whoop! The clouds go dashing at each other and sheer away just in time.
Whoop! And a man's hat careers down the street in front of the white dust, leaps
into the branches of a tree, veers away and trundles ahead of the wind, jarring
the sunlight into spokes of rose-colour and green.
A motor-car cuts a swathe through the bright air, sharp-beaked, irresistible,
shouting to the wind to make way. A glare of dust and sunshine tosses together
behind it, and settles down. The sky is quiet and high, and the morning is fair
with fresh-washed air.






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