Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ANIMAL DISPUTANS, by MILTON SAWYER ROSE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ANIMAL DISPUTANS, by                    
First Line: Green passions rise in me like monstrous frogs
Last Line: Yet they breathe air, and may one day be birds.
Subject(s): Animals; Frogs


Green passions rise in me like monstrous frogs,
Jutting broad sensual noses through the mind
(Pangs of my ancient self that still am I).
Sprawling afloat with baby hands set wide,
They take the sunlight with their uncouth blinks
Irreverently musing on the day
As if the conscious soul were their own slime,
Or top of their thick generative mess
Which puts them forth as buds into the light.

But I know frogs like not pure flowing streams.
Shall cold corporeal things pollute the pool
That takes the amorous beauty of the moon
Within its bosom, and cherishes loveliness
From unattainable stars?
Frogs are but algae grown cooperative,
But still, they trouble me with their humanness,
Intrude within my sanctities of self
Till sometimes I forget my state and kneel
In kindly mood toward these dim lumps of sense
Which sit demurely with their rippling throats
To feed upon the idle summer hours
Unmarred by holy visions unfulfilled,
Oblivious of destines not theirs.
Of course, when I approach they dive below
Splashing headfirst through august idea
To squirm white bellies in the seepy ooze,
And in the dark plan procreative joys.

I know not how to keep the surface clear
So soon again floats up the muddy stain!
Where soul and sky, in blue communion pure,
Commingling light in rapt ecstatic pause,
Lie placidly, they poke their blunt snouts through;
There suddenly I see their bulgy eyes
Bobbing serenely on my wavy dream.
And where the floating lilies make Heaven bend low
In adoration, they dare venture in
As though the loveliness were part of them.

What means these croaking crudities of sense,
These lumpish glomerates of lower life,
To break into our human dignities?

Yet they breathe air, and may one day be birds.





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