Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MAP MAKERS by NATHALIA CRANE

First Line: THERE WAS A MAN WHO MADE A MAP
Last Line: FOR IT NEVER TOOK TWENTY YEARS.
Subject(s): MAPS; STARS;
THERE was a man who made a map
Of all you see at night;
He made the moon and all the stars
And comets in their flight.

He worked for twenty years or more
And extra ink he bought,
And then he mapped the Milky Way
As sort of an afterthought.

I read the story to Margaret,
She said that it must be true,
For she herself could draw a map
Of Ocean avenue.

She made a dot for Prospect Park,
A blot for Sheepshead Bay,
And then she ruled a line between
To show the right of way.

It took her just five minutes just,
But I have my private fears,
That it isn't quite up to the moon-man's map,
For it never took twenty years.



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