"WHEN I look down my limbs and moving breast I know that on a day these will commence To contradict my being that bids them be And sets the harmony by which they live. I love to cleanse them; they reply to me, Exuding, sloughing, duteously renewing, For cleansing is the nature of their growth; Yet in that day they shall deny my will, And turn to filth, refuse, and dirty water, While a dispersing sentience that was I Stands close thereby in trouble, in travail With words those lips delay to utter in time, In awe-full agony lest that flesh dissolve Before I can get into it again. "And when I see it buried I shall cry out: If it is given to fire I shall have throes Of suffering, of unbearable regret, Longing, apprehension, that shall bind Yet, yet a little while the loosening wreaths Of sentience that are continent of me: Then shame and dread shall be the heart of me Because I have no body to hide my thoughts, That are being scanned, as if by unseen eyes, Pursued and judged, ineluctably judged, I shivering in that exposury To estimation, to distinguishing Reproach and sympathy unbearable, Until dissemination is complete." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: OCTOBER by EDMUND SPENSER THE YOUNG CARPENTER by AL-RUSAFI CHORUS OF THE CLOUD-MAIDEN: ANTISTROPHE, FR. THE CLOUDS by ARISTOPHANES LILIES: 30. THE WHOLE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) SOUNDS OF THE CITY by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE AN AUTUMN TRINKET by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN A DIALOGUE, OCCASIONED BY MARCH OF HIGHLANDERS INTO LANCASHIRE, 1745 by JOHN BYROM |