The Woods At Night Poem by May Swenson
The Woods At Night
The binocular owl,
fastened to a limb
like a lantern
all night long,
sees where all
the other birds sleep:
towhee under leaves,
titmouse deep
in a twighouse,
sapsucker gripped
to a knothole lip,
redwing in the reeds,
swallow in the willow,
flicker in the oak -
but cannot see poor
whippoorwill
under the hill
in deadbrush nest,
who's awake, too -
with stricken eye
flayed by the moon
her brindled breast
repeats, repeats, repeats its plea
for cruelty.
This poem is a marvel of rhythm and sound effect. Alliteration, assonance, internal and end rhyme are all here, and create a wonderful musicality. For example: stanza 1: The binocular owl, ('binocular owl' and 'long') fastened to a limb like a lantern (limb, like lantern, long, leaves, lip) all night long, and the repitition (which itself 'repeats, repeats, repeats' in last stanza) of the 'oo' 'ee' and 'w' sounds throughout the entire poem. Wonderful.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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1/23/2025 9:31:56 PM # 1.0.0
i love this poem's cadence - and its sense of realism.