Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOR WALT WHITMAN by DAVID IGNATOW

Poet Analysis

First Line: I CANNOT READ YOU
Last Line: THE BOSS?
Subject(s): LIFE; POETRY & POETS; WHITMAN, WALT (1819-1891);
I cannot read you
without feeling my life
betrays you. I set you
aside with disdain
for you make a big thing
of existence when I know
it is simply the dropping
of a token into the slot
and of riding downtown
in the subway.

How would you like
to be pushed out
by your camerados
all getting off with you
at your stop and rushing
to have their coffee
first before facing
the boss?



Home: PoetryExplorer.net