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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
STAR-DANCERS, by CLIFFORD GESSLER Poet's Biography First Line: Rongo told me how, when a boy, he lay Last Line: Intolerable vision of forbidden peace. Subject(s): Stars | |||
Rongo told me how, when a boy, he lay In a pandanus thicket on the Night of the Stars, and saw The maidens of his tribe, with eloquent arms tossing, Dancing nude in the starlight the ancient rite of the stars; Heard, over the obligate of the tropic night, Old women chanting the ancient prayer to the stars . . . And how the spear of a sudden terror pierced him, So that he shrieked and fled, and came no more To the sacred hollow between mountain and sea. And I thought, in the Night of Stars if I could be A girl, brown and straight-limbed, flower-garlanded, Dancing in holy nakedness under the sky The ancient undecipherable rune of the stars; Or at the last an old woman, weary with wisdom, Chanting with hollow notes of gourd drums The old, obscure litany of the sky, I might be comforted, and dream no more of gardens Impossible and afar, or the cool silence Of moon-pools of forgetfulness, and the dim Intolerable vision of forbidden peace. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EPIC STARS by ROBINSON JEFFERS HYMN TO THE STARS by GEORGE LAWRENCE ANDREWS CHRISTMAS TREE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS CLEMATIS MONTANA by MADELINE DEFREES THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE by JAMES GALVIN TO SEE THE STARS IN DAYLIGHT by JAMES GALVIN CLOUD TRAIL by CLIFFORD GESSLER |
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