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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A STITUATION, by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER Poet's Biography First Line: Not that I mean to make trouble - all the same Last Line: Not that I mean to make trouble, but ... We shall see. Alternate Author Name(s): Hooker, Brian | |||
Not that I mean to make trouble.... All the same, I could reach him so easily, easily -- just one glance, One word sometimes, to awaken the whole romance -- It's enough to tempt a Minerva to play the game ... And she so careful never to give me a chance! He's a younger cousin, or some relation of hers; (She's older than I) and the two are really friends, Equal, intimate comrades -- and there it ends: Never a thought of anything better or worse, And nearly the same with me, but ... that depends. No one I want -- just a big, dear, innocent boy With a man's blunt will and elaborate honesties, And the arms and back of a man, and sweet boy's eyes Easily brightened with laughter or darkened with joy -- Inexperienced, eager, and not too wise! Nothing to rouse me deeply, or hold me long -- I have buried my dead, and seen my share of men -- But the wish comes back upon me again and again To awaken the man in the boy, and find him strong ... And a horrible sick little shudder now and then, As he sits with his hand on hers, as a matter of course, Or sprawls on the floor with his head against her knee Wholly unconscious, forgetting the He and She, Which somehow, nevertheless, has a subtle force When their wills or opinions oppose and their eyes agree. If she would only not be quite so motherly! Patronizingly watching us day by day -- When his eyes follow on as I move, and rest where I stay, Or his voice drops half a tone below the brotherly -- Off goes the conversation another way! As if she said: "Come look at my lovely flowers -- Please do not pluck any; I never do, you know, Only I like to plant them and watch them grow" ... If the two were boy and girl in their first mad hours, I should laugh, and help them, and bless them, and let them go! And yet ... What a foolish waste there will be of beauty When he finds the one conventional child for him, (With an untaught voice, and elbows youthfully slim) Who follows him stupidly down the path of duty, So blind with her own new glory that his grows dim! To make him take me, knowing myself the first -- I who could measure his utmost power of giving, I who could prize his virginal believing, I who have learned the lore of the best and worst ... Why, it would make the life I have lived worth living! Only -- have I still anything left to spare? Well, an education in love, to the last degree, Is cheap at the price of a shrivelled vanity. I at least ought to think so -- I've had my share. Not that I mean to make trouble, but ... we shall see. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CHARACTER by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A LITTLE PERSON by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A MAN'S SONG by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A MAN-CHILD'S LULLABY by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A PORTRAIT by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A ROBIN'S SONG by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A SCHOOLGIRL SPEAKS by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER A WOMAN'S SONG by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER ABSENCES by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER AMULETS by WILLIAM BRIAN HOOKER |
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