Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE BALLOON MAN by JEAN M. BATCHELOR

First Line: HOW CAN HE UNENRAPTURED STAND
Last Line: SEEING IT SHRINK, ALL WORLDS ARE SO.
Subject(s): BALLOONS; BUBBLES; HAPPINESS; JOY; DELIGHT;

How can he unenraptured stand
Who marvelously may command
Seven suns in either hand?
Turning on a twisted thread,
Constellations green and red
Float above his placid head,
And as he walks, each hollow ball,
A bobbing planet smooth and small,
Must with his motion rise and fall.

He who for silver would possess
Cheaply a private world, no less,
To satisfy his happiness,
Wholly his own to loose or bind,
May with this merchant quickly find
The bubble brightest to his mind;
Then, having bought, may watch it go
Slowly to nothing, and may know,
Seeing it shrink, all worlds are so.



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