Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CHANGELING by HAROLD CALEB DALTON

First Line: I DO NOT UNDERSTAND
Last Line: CANNOT HOLD THE SEA?
Subject(s): DESIRE;

I do not understand
My changeling self at all,
Why should my heart answer
A wild bird's call?

Why should dancing iris,
Sandaled by a pool,
Burn my eyes with sudden tears --
Make me play the fool?

Oh, I ache with longing
Reaching to the sky,
I, an earthly creature,
Yearning so to fly!

Why is loveliness a sword
Thrusting deep in me,
Wounding me because my arms
Cannot hold the sea?



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