REED, slashed and torn but doubly rich -- such great heads as yours drift upon temple-steps, but you are shattered in the wind. Myrtle-bark is flecked from you, scales are dashed from your stem, sand cuts your petal, furrows it with hard edge, like flint on a bright stone. Yet though the whole wind slash at your bark, you are lifted up, aye -- though it hiss to cover you with froth. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEATH (1) by MAXWELL BODENHEIM OF A BAD SINGER; EPIGRAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG NYMPH GOING TO BED by JONATHAN SWIFT |