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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SHADOW, by LOLA RIDGE Poet's Biography
First Line: Though -- statued to a savage innocence
Last Line: Night stretching a vast cross of ebony.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lawson, David, Mrs.
Subject(s): Night; Shadows; Bedtime
First Line: Though -- statued to a savage innocence
Last Line: Night stretching a vast cross of ebony.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lawson, David, Mrs.
Subject(s): Night; Shadows; Bedtime
Though -- statued to a savage innocence
That wills to seize and, seizing, to devour --
You hold your head stately as a flower
Of cactus, your wit tempered and made tense
To parry, as with medieval lance,
Life at its point, yet with a dread surmise
As one who fears old ambush you advance --
Rimmed in the golden distance of your eyes
A gone horizon reeling -- and the stench
Of death -- and only your eyes' roving spark,
Not all the rain of centuries can quench,
Two points of amber fire in the dark. . . .
And, nailed with stars above some Tyrian tree,
Night stretching a vast cross of ebony.
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THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL
HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS
NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS
WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON
POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN
COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE
POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE