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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CLOCK, by JOHN COWPER POWYS Poet's Biography
First Line: Why do you go to that grand hotel
Last Line: "and london, with their chimes."
Subject(s): Clocks; Guilt; Household Employees; Love; Time; Servants; Domestics; Maids
First Line: Why do you go to that grand hotel
Last Line: "and london, with their chimes."
Subject(s): Clocks; Guilt; Household Employees; Love; Time; Servants; Domestics; Maids
"Why do you go to that grand hotel Of iron and marble built?"
-- "I do not know -- I cannot tell --
Yet something in me could answer well
If it would." And I blushed with guilt.
"Try to say it," she said. "Is't the gilded roof,
Or the bunches of roses red,
Or the airy corridors, fire-proof,
Or the servants' velvet tread?"
-- "Yes, these -- but something more than these!
Hush! Did you hear that sound?
The corner-clock! It brings release
To ghosts of underground.
"No other House, no other place,
Chants me these wistful rhymes
That brings first love and a long-lost face
And London, with their chimes."
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IBIS; FOR LORI GOLDENSOHN by NORMAN DUBIE
PLAINT OF THE POET IN AN IGNORANT AGE by CAROLYN KIZER
LEDA'S HANDMAIDEN by ELEANOR WILNER
THE HOUSEKEEPER by ROBERT FROST