Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE POET AT THIRTY by JEAN COCTEAU

First Line: NOW I HAVE REACHED THE MIDMOST OF MY YEARS
Last Line: I'D FEEL THE VOID AND TUMBLE FROM THE ROOF.
Subject(s): POETRY & POETS;
Now I have reached the midmost of my years,
Atop my house I hold myself astride;
I see the same landscape on either side,
But not the same season appears.

Here the red earth is antlered with vine
Like a young deer. Laughter, wash on line,
Interchanged signals—and the day is through.
There, winter and the fame that is my due.

Venus, I'd like you still to say to me
You love me. For if I had I held aloof,
Nor built my house of my own poetry,
I'd feel the void and tumble from the roof.



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