Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A PERSON TALKING OF 'REAL LIFE', by JOHN COWPER POWYS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A PERSON TALKING OF 'REAL LIFE', by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And so you really hold
Last Line: Go -- find a girl -- and see!
Subject(s): Caesar, Julius (100-44 B.c.); Fate; Jesus Christ; Life; Stars; Destiny


And so you really hold --
You poor incredible ass! --
That all this steel and gold
And all this roaring mass,
These shops -- these streets -- these jostling cars,
Represent life -- beneath the stars?

Nom de Dieu! all the while
These bawling bandits strive
With brazen fraud and guile
To keep themselves alive,
The eternal gods in deep contempt
Frustrate the insolent attempt.

These things of iron and brass
These manikins of clay --
You poor unmeasured ass! --
Deem you life flows their way?
Mere weight, mere noise, mere rampant size,
Are nothing to the Destinies!

Deem you that that deep tide,
Which flowed thro' Caesar's veins,
And poured from Jesus' side,
Cares for their withered gains?
Their works, like writings on the sands,
Are -- and are not; -- as it commands.

The scurf of our old earth
Has bred that kind before,
Unconscious of their birth,
And will again; the shore
Of life is strewn with such;
But the deep waters' flow,
Where the horizons touch,
And the vast sea-winds blow,
Knows nothing of them -- Ass!

Life and Reality
Are high evasive things
That come on eagles' wings.
All else is mud and dust and farce
And sheer nonentity.
Go -- find a girl -- and see!





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