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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SOCIAL WORKER, by HELEN BRYAN First Line: I've seen them sit / like little squirming chipmunks Last Line: To sin and die, but still to follow beauty? | |||
I've seen them sit Like little squirming chipmunks, Their feet tap-tapping The hard chair rails, Their young brows knotted Over their sewing, art-work, Or what the stuff might be. Last night a woman talked Hard at them for two hours. She wore a straight black hat and bangs. Her cotton stockings shagged Above her spread flat feet. She told them all about the mountain whites; She is a good, good woman. I watched them as they sniffed the smell Thick with gardenia and plumeria's meld That drifts beyond the window -- Their eyes were wistful like young puzzled stars Caught in a cloudbank. Perhaps they know just where the moonlight purls All gold upon the dreaming cream-lipped sea; Perhaps they hear Out of the husky silence of the night The strong, bright monster that is life Calling its raucous, lovely song across the dark. What price this musty chaff we offer them When those inviting doors stand open wide Through which their feet must slip To follow beauty's far uncertain trail -- To sin and die, but still to follow beauty? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLUEBELL by EMILY JANE BRONTE ENVOY, TO 'MORE SONGS FROM VAGABONDIA' by RICHARD HOVEY AIRLY BEACON by CHARLES KINGSLEY A NET TO SNARE THE MOONLIGHT by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY COWLEY: THE GARDEN by ALEXANDER POPE LOCKSLEY HALL SIXTY YEARS AFTER by ALFRED TENNYSON THE BLIND ASTRONOMER by THOMAS ASA MOCK EPITAPH ON MR. AND MRS. ESTLIN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |
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