Mad Day In March
by Philip Levine
Beaten like an old hound
Whimpering by the stove,
I complicate the pain
That smarts with promised love.
The oilstove falls, the rain,
Forecast, licks at my wound;
Ice forms, clips the green shoot,
And strikes the wren house mute.
May commoner and king,
The barren bride and nun
Begrudge the season’s dues.
May children curse the sun,
Sweet briar and grass refuse
To compromise the spring,
And both sower and seed
Choke on the summer’s weed.
Those promises we heard
We heard in ignorance;
The numbered days we named,
And, in our innocence,
Assumed the beast was tamed.
On a bare limb, a bird,
Alone, arrived, with wings
Frozen, holds on and sings.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Sonnet 25: Let those who are in favour with their stars by William Shakespeare
- Владимир Высоцкий – Заказал я два коктейля
- Robert Burns: A Poet’s Welcome To His Love-Begotten Daughter: The First Instance That Entitled Him To The Venerable Appellation Of Father
- Leaves A-Vallèn by William Barnes
- Conversation 23: On Cause by Rosmarie Waldrop
- Minimalism And The Elm Choka
- Beautiful Balmerino by William Topaz McGonagall
- Perseus by Sylvia Plath
- Федор Сологуб – В камине пылания много
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Благодарю Вас за цветы
- A Summary History of Lord Clive by William Topaz McGonagall
- In The Train by Sara Teasdale
- I did not want to stop you by Luz del Alba Nicola
- The Twa Sisters poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Lover’s Gifts XXVIII: I Dreamt by Rabindranath Tagore
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Philip Levine ( 1928 – 2015) was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for more than thirty years in the English department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012