Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ADELAIDE CRAPSEY by CARL SANDBURG

Poet Analysis

First Line: AMONG THE BUMBLE-BEES IN RED-TOP HAY, A FRECKLED
Last Line: SHAPES ON THE BEACH SAND.
Subject(s): CRAPSEY, ADELAIDE (1878-1914);
AMONG the bumble-bees in red-top hay, a freckled field of brown-eyed
Susans dripping yellow leaves in July,
I read your heart in a book.

And your mouth of blue pansy -- I know somewhere I have seen it
rain-shattered.

And I have seen a woman with her head flung between her naked knees,
and her head held there listening to the sea, the great naked sea
shouldering a load of salt.

And the blue pansy mouth sang to the sea:
Mother of God, I'm so little a thing,
Let me sing longer,
Only a little longer.

And the sea shouldered its salt in long gray combers hauling new
shapes on the beach sand.




Home: PoetryExplorer.net