TRYING to open locked doors with a sword, threading the points of needles, planting shade trees upside down; swallowed by the opaqueness of one whom the seas love better than they love you, Ireland— you have lived and lived on every kind of shortage. You have been compelled by hags to spin gold thread from straw and have heard men say: "There is a feminine temperament in direct contrast to ours which makes her do these things. Circumscribed by a heritage of blindness and native incompetence, she will become wise and will be forced to give in. Compelled by experience, she will turn back; water seeks its own level": and you have smiled. "Water in motion is far from level." You have seen it when obstacles happened to bar the path—rise automatically. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CURTAIN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE WILD RIDE by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY SONG AT THE FEAST OF BROUGHAM CASTLE; UPON RSTORATION OF LORD CLIFFORD by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH EN TOUR; A SONG SEQUENCE: 1. THE GARGOYLE by ALBERTA BANCROFT AULD ROBIN FORBES by SUSANNA BLAMIRE |