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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CIPHERS, by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Oh, to be a wonder-child Last Line: Nature's old rosetta stone! Subject(s): Language; Words; Vocabulary | |||
OH, to be a wonder-child And read the cipher of the wild! A starry-splintered alphabet In the ancient rocks is set, Spelling, if one held the key, All creation's history. Cryptic messages I trace Etched on many a flower-face; Graven symbols score the pines, The birches wear mysterious signs -- Perhaps the wistful diary Of the Dryad in her tree. On the open page of snow Curious hieroglyphics show, Dots and dashes, twist and thrust, Carven in the crystal crust; Marks of furred and feathered things With furtive feet or startled wings -- Comic secrets of the dark, Silent tragedy and stark. Ciphers, ciphers everywhere, In the sky, the wave, the air! On the faces that one meets Adrift upon the eddying streets; On the near and dear, that change With lines inscrutable and strange -- Palimpsests that time has wrought With the signs of hidden thought, Dreams unguessed and griefs unsaid, Passionate yearning unbetrayed. Ah, could Love but find and own Nature's old Rosetta Stone! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOWYOUBEENS' by TERRANCE HAYES MY LIFE: REASON LOOKS FOR TWO, THEN ARRANGES IT FROM THERE by LYN HEJINIAN THE FATALIST: THE BEST WORDS by LYN HEJINIAN WRITING IS AN AID TO MEMORY: 17 by LYN HEJINIAN CANADA IN ENGLISH by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA THERE IS NO WORD by TONY HOAGLAND CONSIDERED SPEECH by JOHN HOLLANDER AND MOST OF ALL, I WANNA THANK ?Ǫ by JOHN HOLLANDER A CHARM SAID UNDER AN OAK by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN |
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