Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FUNGI, by CHARLES WHARTON STORK Poet's Biography First Line: What fascinates first a roving glance in the woods Last Line: Too quiet else to charm a careless eye? Subject(s): Fungi | ||||||||
What fascinates first a roving glance in the woods Is fungi; they're so different, standing out Like notes or colors in a higher key Of values. Some are sconces fixed on trunks Of withered trees, chalk-white against the black -- One wonders what strange candles may be set By what strange hands to burn there after dark With elfin phosphorescence. Then there are clumps Of miniature green, yellow, purple, red, Or brown pagodas clustered everywhere About the mouldy roots, like pleasure parks For Chinese fairies; and the waxen sheaves Of Indian pipe, so delicately pale. And yet they live on death. The whole wood lives On death, but after death has been transformed Through a wide gamut, has been purged with sun, Cleansed with cool rain and purified with wind, Then stored in earth to mellow for new life; While the fungi -- but let them have their due: Their flaunting colors make the deep star-moss Look tenderer still, and all the flowers more chaste. What hints as well the wonder of the big Essential things, the primal forest art, Too quiet else to charm a careless eye? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A DREAM OF ENGLAND by CHARLES WHARTON STORK A WOMAN SPEAKS by CHARLES WHARTON STORK AUTUMNAL ECSTASY by CHARLES WHARTON STORK BEAUTY'S BURDEN by CHARLES WHARTON STORK DEATH - DIVINIATION by CHARLES WHARTON STORK EDVARD GRIEG by CHARLES WHARTON STORK FLYING FISH: AN ODE by CHARLES WHARTON STORK IN EARTHEN VESSELS by CHARLES WHARTON STORK LEAF-MOULD by CHARLES WHARTON STORK LLEWELLYN, PRINCE OF CAMBRIA; A WELSH BALLAD by CHARLES WHARTON STORK NO LUCK by CHARLES WHARTON STORK SESQUICENTENNIAL ODE; FOR JULY 24, 1926 by CHARLES WHARTON STORK |
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