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Jim Tian Poem
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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Details |
Jim Tian Poem
Class assignment: continue a famous line someone else has corrupted
(with more corruption)
Into the valley of Meth
Rode the six hundred
Who would not ride out
Their faces pale, their figures gaunt
"We've found it," they said
And so they did
Searching for the greatest gifts
In the deepest shadows
They kept onward
It was waiting there
Shining in the darkness
Their last reward.
Copyright © Jim Tian | Year Posted 2012
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