He who has gazed against the sun sees everywhere he looks thereafter, palpitating on the air before his eyes, a smudge that will not go away. So in my days of still-youth, my audacity, I dared look on the splendor momentarily. The dark blot on my greedy eyes has come to stay. Since when, worn like a badge of mourning in the sight of all around me where my eye may chance to light, I see the dark smudge settle upon everyone. Forever thus between my happiness and me? Alas for us, the eagle only, only he can look, and not be hurt, on splendor and the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WRECK OF THE CIRCUS TRAIN by HAYDEN CARRUTH MOUNTAIN FARM by MALCOLM COWLEY TO JOHN BROWN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE REWARD by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON STREET-CRIES: 2. THE SHIP OF EARTH by SIDNEY LANIER SLEEPING TOGETHER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |