Yvor Winters Hard Poems
- 1. To Emily Dickinson
Dear Emily, my tears would burn your page,
But for the fire-dry line that makes them burnâ??
Burning my eyes, my fingers, while I turn
Singly the words that crease my heart with age.
... - 2. On A View Of Pasadena From The Hills
From the high terrace porch I watch the dawn.
No light appears, though dark has mostly gone,
Sunk from the cold and monstrous stone. The hills
Lie naked but not light. The darkness spills
... - 3. Dark Spring
My mother
Foresaw deaths
And walked among
Chrysanthemums,
... - 4. The Moralists
You would extend the mind beyond the act,
Furious, bending, suffering in thin
And unpoetic dicta; you have been
Forced by hypothesis to fiercer fact.
... - 5. By The Road To The Air Base
The calloused grass lies hard
Against the cracking plain:
Life is a grayish stain;
The salt-marsh hems my yard.
... - 6. At The San Francisco Airport
This is the terminal: the light
Gives perfect vision, false and hard;
The metal glitters, deep and bright/
Great planes are waiting in the yard-
...