At Dusk
Class assignment: Read only the first verse of Easter 1916 by Yeats, then write a continuation (without looking up the original).
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
I wandered a while, bereft of thought
Through the spaces and crowds,
In all that passed around me naught
But a single whispering voice.
“Where are you walking toward?”
The windless mist grew heavy;
Within the smiling, striding horde
I smiled, directionless.
The sun was set, and in its wake
Stand wandering shadows, transfixed
I could see only what I could make
Of guts spilled on trampled bricks.
“Oh, where are you going?” I asked
From the mist there was no answer.
No time, then, to mourn what is past
A terrible beauty is born.
Copyright © Jim Tian | Year Posted 2012
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