Written by
John Berryman |
Plop, plop.
The lobster toppled in the pot,
fulfilling, dislike man, his destiny,
glowing fire-red,
succulent, and on the whole becoming what
man wants.
I crack my final claw singly,
wind up the grave, & to bed.
—Sound good, Mr Bones.
I wish I had me some.
(I spose you got a lessen up your slave.
)
—O no no no.
Sole I remember; where no lobster swine,—
pots hot or cold is none.
With you I grieve
lightly, and I have no lesson.
Bodies are relishy, they say.
Here's mine,
was.
What ever happened to Political Economy,
leaving me here?
Is a rare—in my opinion—responsibility.
The military establishments perpetuate themselves forever.
Have a bite, for a sign.
|
Written by
Sylvia Plath |
The word, defining, muzzles; the drawn line
Ousts mistier peers and thrives, murderous,
In establishments which imagined lines
Can only haunt.
Sturdy as potatoes,
Stones, without conscience, word and line endure,
Given an inch.
Not that they're gross (although
Afterthought often would have them alter
To delicacy, to poise) but that they
Shortchange me continuously: whether
More or other, they still dissatisfy.
Unpoemed, unpictured, the potato
Bunches its knobby browns on a vastly
Superior page; the blunt stone also.
|
Written by
Philip Larkin |
Lonely in Ireland, since it was not home,
Strangeness made sense.
The salt rebuff of speech,
Insisting so on difference, made me welcome:
Once that was recognised, we were in touch
Their draughty streets, end-on to hills, the faint
Archaic smell of dockland, like a stable,
The herring-hawker's cry, dwindling, went
To prove me separate, not unworkable.
Living in England has no such excuse:
These are my customs and establishments
It would be much more serious to refuse.
Here no elsewhere underwrites my existence.
|
Written by
Walt Whitman |
THITHER, as I look, I see each result and glory retracing itself and nestling close,
always
obligated;
Thither hours, months, years—thither trades, compacts, establishments, even the most
minute;
Thither every-day life, speech, utensils, politics, persons, estates;
Thither we also, I with my leaves and songs, trustful, admirant,
As a father, to his father going, takes his children along with him.
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