A trap's a very useful thing: Nature in our path sets Spring. It is a trap to catch us two, It is planned for me and you. Do not think my cheeks are warm, Do not wonder if my arm Would make a pillow sweet for rest. Not to speak or glance is best -- To smother the thing that calls so clear Deep in our thoughts at the spring of the year. If we stop, if we look, if we speak, if we care, Nature will snatch us unaware, Will put us in a house with four Chairs, a table, and a door To enslave us evermore. She means to tie you firm and tight To a desk from dawn till night To make you strain and make you sweat Till you forget, till you forget All that is good and fine and high. She will give you fear to keep till you die. She means to tear my flesh to make A child to steal my hours awake, To break my hours asleep, to be Slayer of the youth in me, Slayer of the youth in you, Slayer of that which makes us sing. Let us never look at Spring; It is a trap to catch us two. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NIGHT IN ARIZONA by SARA TEASDALE THE SHELL TO THE PEARL by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE POET AND HIS SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR TERNISSA, FR HELLENICS by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR LYSISTRATA: HYMN OF PEACE; CHORUSES OF ATHENIANS AND SPARTANS by ARISTOPHANES EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 11. LOVE WILL OUT by PHILIP AYRES THE WAKE OF THE KING OF SPAIN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |