(1917 - 1977 / Boston / United States)

What do you think this poem is about?

Children of Light

Our fathers wrung their bread from stocks and stones
And fenced their gardens with the Redmen's bones;
Embarking from the Nether Land of Holland,
Pilgrims unhouseled by Geneva's night,
They planted here the Serpent's seeds of light;
And here the pivoting searchlights probe to shock
The riotous glass houses built on rock,
And candles gutter by an empty altar,
And light is where the landless blood of Cain
Is burning, burning the unburied grain.

Submitted: Friday, January 03, 2003


Read poems about / on: light, night, children, father, house, child

Comments about this poem (Children of Light by Robert Lowell )

Enter the verification code :

  • Peter Falina (12/5/2006 10:36:00 AM)

    I first encountered this poem as a frontspiece to Robert Stone's novel, 'A Hall of Mirrors.' Interestingly, Stone took his title from the line that he quoted as, 'And candles gutter in a hall of mirrors.' Does anybody know how he came to quote the line this way? It's an interesting image, but not, perhaps, Lowell's.

    3 person liked.
    2 person did not like.
  • Sean Mcdougall (5/8/2006 5:42:00 PM)

    , hvkhvkjkmhg hjfgh ghffj jgfk gfjf fvdyhhhj

    13 person liked.
    5 person did not like.
Read all 2 comments »
[Hata Bildir]