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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BUCOLIC COMEDY: SPRINGING JACK by EDITH SITWELL

Poet Analysis

First Line: GREEN WOODEN LEAVES CLAP LIGHT AWAY
Last Line: FALLS ON MY EYES AND SENSE THRILLS THROUGH.

GREEN wooden leaves clap light away
From the young flowers as white as day, --

Clear angel-face on hairy stalk;
(Soul grown from flesh, an ape's young talk.)

The showman's face is cubed, clear as
The shapes reflected in a glass,

Of water -- (Glog, glut, a ghost's speech
Fumbling for space from each to each.)

The fusty showman fumbles, must
Fit in a particle of dust

The universe, for fear it gain
Its freedom from my box of brain.

Yet dust bears seeds that grow to grace
Behind my crude-striped wooden face,

As I, a puppet tinsel-pink
Leap on my springs, learn how to think,

Then like the trembling golden stalk
Of some long-petalled star, I walk

Through the dark heavens, until dew
Falls on my eyes and sense thrills through.



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