Get Your Premium Membership

What Does It Mean

 It does not know it glitters
It does not know it flies
It does not know it is this not that.
And, more and more often, agape, With my Gauloise dying out, Over a glass of red wine, I muse on the meaning of being this not that.
Just as long ago, when I was twenty, But then there was a hope I would be everything, Perhaps even a butterfly or a thrush, by magic.
Now I see dusty district roads And a town where the postmaster gets drunk every day Melancholy with remaining identical to himself.
If only the stars contained me.
If only everything kept happening in such a way That the so-called world opposed the so-called flesh.
Were I at least not contradictory.
Alas.

Poem by Czeslaw Milosz
Biography | Poems | Best Poems | Short Poems | Quotes | Email Poem - What Does It MeanEmail Poem | Create an image from this poem

Poems are below...



More Poems by Czeslaw Milosz

Comments, Analysis, and Meaning on What Does It Mean

Provide your analysis, explanation, meaning, interpretation, and comments on the poem What Does It Mean here.

Commenting turned off, sorry.


Book: Reflection on the Important Things