The Stoic: For Laura Von Courten Poem by Edgar Bowers
The Stoic: For Laura Von Courten
All winter long you listened for the boom
Of distant cannon wheeled into their place.
Sometimes outside beneath a bombers’ moon
You stood alone to watch the searchlights trace
Their careful webs against the boding sky,
While miles away on Munich’s vacant square
The bombs lunged down with an unruly cry
Whose blast you saw yet could but faintly hear.
And might have turned your eyes upon the gleam
Of a thousand years of snow, where near the clouds
The Alps ride massive to their full extreme,
And season after season glacier crowds
The dark, persistent smudge of conifers.
Or seen beyond the hedge and through the trees
The shadowy forms of cattle on the furze,
Their dim coats white with mist against the freeze.
Or thought instead of other times than these,
Of other countries and of other sights:
Eternal Venice sinking by degrees
Into the very water that she lights;
Reflected in canals, the lucid dome
Of Maria della Salute at your feet,
Her triple spires disfigured by the foam.
Remembered in Berlin the parks, the neat
Footpaths and lawns, the clean spring foliage,
Where just short weeks before, a bomb, unaimed,
Released a frightened lion from its cage,
Which in the mottled dark that trees enflamed
Killed one who hurried homeward from the raid.
And by yourself there standing in the chill
You must, with so much known, have been afraid
And chosen such a mind of constant will,
Which, though all time corrode with constant hurt,
Remains, until it occupies no space,
That which it is; and passionless, inert,
Becomes at last no meaning and no place.
nice poem of sad memories and sad thoughts of real events during the war.
In the midst of tragedy to will the mind to become without meaning or place, and therein to find peace when all else is war. Beautifully crafted poetry. Writing at a level to which we should all aspire.
The darkest days during the war++++++++++++++++ Thanks for sharing++++++++++
A beautiful creation, well conceived and nicely put together
(C) under whom Bowers studied at Stanford, but his achievement far surpasses that of his mentor, and his other students, such as J. V. Cunningham. He often wrote in rhyme, but also produced some of the finest blank verse in the English language
(B) The effect of this contrast is striking: at once balanced and engaged; detached but acutely aware of sensual satisfactions. The style owes much to the artistic ethos of Yvor Winters,
(A) ABOUT THE POET IN HIS BIO: Very important to know this: That 'physical world' encompasses and love, which are refracted through his restrained and lapidary lines..
CONGRATULATIONS to the family of the late great Poet, this poem being chosen as The Classic Poem Of The Day!
THREE: Beautiful end rhymes, a cynical statement about the war at the time, nine stanzas long, but every word has been weighed and weighed. The beautiful cynicism shines here.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
12/3/2024 3:21:32 AM # 1.0.0
All winter long! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.