Day Thirty-Eight, and Here There Be Tygers
Posted by Elisa Beatty Feb 16 2012, 11:45 pm
And one last love poem for the week: Difference by Stephen Vincent Benet:
My mind’s a map. A mad sea-captain drew it
Under a flowing moon until he knew it;
Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs,
And states bright-patterned like Arabian rugs.
“Here there be tygers.”Here we buried Jim.”
Here is the strait where eyeless fishes swim
About their buried idol, drowned so cold
He weeps away his eyes in salt and gold.
A country like the dark side of the moon,
A cider-apple country, harsh and boon,
A country savage as a chestnut-rind,
A land of hungry sorcerers.
Your mind?
Your mind is water through an April night,
A cherry-branch, plume-feathery with its white,
A lavender as fragrant as your words,
A room where Peace and Honor talk like birds,
Sewing bright coins upon the tragic cloth
Of heavy Fate, and Mockery, like a moth,
Flutters and beats about those lovely things.
You are the soul, enchanted with its wings,
The single voice that raises up the dead
To shake the pride of angels.
I have said.
So how’s your mind today?
Addison
I love this poem. I first read it in college and it speaks to me even more now.
Sorry I haven’t been commenting as much this week! Your poetry choices are very welcome! I am stuck in grading hell at the moment. Can’t wait till Sunday when I am out of it and on the other side!
Here’s to Sunday!!
My school is actually on break ALL NEXT WEEK!!! I’m so excited by the writing possibilities!