I KNOW a little hidden pool Where happy bathers oft repair; Secluded, clear and deep and cool, Men find right brave refreshment there, And swiftly doffing shirts and panties They revel blissful -- @3rari nantes.@1 Remote from scenes of toil and teen All heat and grievance they expunge; Enjoying in that shimmering green The swift shock of a silver plunge, And crying "@3O deorum quicquid@1 We thank thee for this pool: @3some@1 liquid!" Sharp glory of that dive, the first -- And thrill (but how can it be told?) When bodies, slowly falling, burst Into the all-encircling cold, Then splash, or float among the ripple As passive as a participle. How far away, you will agree, Must lie that cool and placid grot -- Amid the Catskill greenery? Some distant Adirondack spot? Yet, if you ask where is the place meant -- The Woolworth Building, in the basement! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEFORE THE RAIN by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH MY MISTRESS'S BOOTS by FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON LA BELLA BONA ROBA by RICHARD LOVELACE SPRING, 1916 by ISAAC ROSENBERG LEFT BEHIND by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN WATER SPORT by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |