Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE USE OF BOOKS by THOMAS MCGRATH

First Line: WHAT'S THERE TO PRAISE
Last Line: Of those lost finds no longer use to me
Subject(s): BOOKS; PRAISE; READING;
What's there to praise.
In that vast library of long gone days
Bound in the failed and fading leather
Of ancient weather?

To free what's trapped or bound
Is my whole law and ground:
Since it's myself I find
Out on the rough roads travelling blind.

Yet, for another's use,
I bind what I let loose
So others may make free
Of those lost finds no longer use to me.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org


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