The light beats upon me. I am startled -- a split leaf crackles on the paved floor -- I am anquished -- defeated. A slight wind shakes the seed-pods -- my thoughts are spent as the black seeds. My thoughts tear me, I dread their fever. I am scattered in its whirl. I am scattered like the hot shrivelled seeds. The shrivelled seeds are spilt on the path -- the grass bends with dust, the grape slips under its crackled leaf: yet far beyond the spent seed-pods, and the blackened stalks of ming, the poplar is bright on the hill, the poplar spreads out, deep-rooted among trees. O poplar, you are great among the hill-stones, while I perish on the path among the crevices of the rocks. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR WALT WHITMAN by DAVID IGNATOW THE LOCKLESS DOOR by ROBERT FROST BURY ME IN A FREE LAND by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 63 by PHILIP SIDNEY PHANTOMS ALL by HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD THE PEACE: TO HEAVEN ON A BEETLE by ARISTOPHANES THE BALLAD OF BITTER FRUIT by THEODORE FAULLAIN DE BANVILLE |