Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AN OLD WOMAN PASSES, by FRANZ WERFEL Poet's Biography First Line: An old woman passes like a rotund tower Last Line: The vast face of god begins to rise. Subject(s): Old Age; Women | ||||||||
An old woman passes like a rotund tower Down the street, stormed by a leafy shower. Soon she disappears, and panting, trots Where black mists in gusty nooks are blowing. Now she'll find a doorway, and be going Slowly up the creaking steps, where glowing Sluggish pools of lamplight lie in blots. Now she goes into her room: no stir, No one takes her jacket off for her. Shaking hands and legs are cold as stone. Fluttering, weary, she begins to putter With her saved-up victuals and stale butter, While the fire lifts its feeble mutter. With her body she remains alone. She forgets, while gulping down her buns, That in her old frame there once grewsons. (Ah, the joy in slippers to be shod.) Now her own with strangers she is sharing, She forgot the cry when she was bearing, Rarely, in a press of people faring, A man calls her "mother" with a nod. Think of her, oh, man, and think how we In this world remain a prodigy, Since we humans into time have hurled! How in the Unknown we dangle, gasping, Looming shadows all about us grasping Soul and body, crushed in their strange clasping. This world cannot be the only world. When she glides, so grizzled, through the room, Oh, perhaps she feels it in the gloom. Sight is fading in her dim old eyes. Yes, she feels herself in all things, growing, On her groaning knees she sinks down, glowing, As in a lamp's little flicker showing The vast face of God begins to rise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARISTOTLE TO PHYLLIS by JOHN HOLLANDER A WOMAN'S DELUSION by SUSAN HOWE JULIA TUTWILER STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN by ANDREW HUDGINS THE WOMEN ON CYTHAERON by ROBINSON JEFFERS TOMORROW by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LADIES FOR DINNER, SAIPAN by KENNETH KOCH GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV BALLAD OF THE FOLLOWERS by FRANZ WERFEL |
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