Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

JOHN SEVERIN WALGREN, 1874-1962 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: TREES DIE OF THIRST OR COLD
Last Line: SHE MOVES US TO TERROR.
Subject(s): AGING; DEATH; EPITAPHS; LOSS; NATURE; DEAD, THE;
Trees die of thirst or cold
or when the limit's reached;
in the hole in the elm
the wood is soft and punky -
it smells of the water of a vase
after the flowers are dumped.

You were so old we could not weep;
only the blood of the young,
those torn off earth in a night's sickness,
the daughter lying beside you
who became nothing so long ago -
she moves us to terror.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net