Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AGAIN THE WIND, by JAMES J. DALY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AGAIN THE WIND, by                    
First Line: You praise the wind, but I
Last Line: Had the intolerable wind blown.
Subject(s): Wind


You praise the wind, but I
Shall never praise it.
Had wind put turbulence
On that pool, would I have seen,
When you leaned suddenly over, hair
Flash toward me from a honeyed brow?
Would you have heard me cry:
"Your breasts are white hawthorn, there
In the water! Oh, I would wean
Loveliness on the petals now!"

You, my dear, my dear,
Should scorn to praise it --
Wind that puts turbulence
On pools that were clear.

Suppose the pool had stirred! -- breaking
(Before I leaned and saw)
The mirrored splendor of your hair,
And we had left that place
Fearing a storm. Would we
Ever have seen, together, death
That had loomed with cloudy claw
Wane in our sky with the moon's waking?
Would you have found with me
The wisdom of shared breath,
Of face transfixing face?
Or I, had we gone,
Have learned that flowers may yield all night
White loveliness and still be white
And petalled in the dreaded dawn?

I praise smooth water, who might have known
No nakedness save naked stone,
Had the intolerable wind blown.





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