History Poem by Robert Lowell

History

Rating: 3.0


History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had--
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.
Abel was finished; death is not remote,
a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the skeptic,
his cows crowding like skulls against high-voltage wire,
his baby crying all night like a new machine.
As in our Bibles, white-faced, predatory,
the beautiful, mist-drunken hunter's moon ascends--
a child could give it a face: two holes, two holes,
my eyes, my mouth, between them a skull's no-nose--
O there's a terrifying innocence in my face
drenched with the silver salvage of the mornfrost.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
shruti 14 November 2017

i like this poem very muchhh..... :)

1 1 Reply
park bong-hyun 26 January 2021

for my English lesson even tho I'm korean

0 1 Reply
MAHTAB BANGALEE 21 June 2021

beautiful; enjoyable poem penned

0 1 Reply
thomas 19 September 2018

i want to read history

0 0 Reply
Nicholas 11 November 2020

i simply love your poems

0 0 Reply
MAHTAB BANGALEE 22 June 2021

History has to live with what was here, clutching and close to fumbling all we had-- yes that's true

0 1 Reply
Sylvia Frances Chan 21 June 2021

So aptly worded,5 Stars Full since it is very true, True enjoyable poem. Congratulations being The Modern Poem Of The Day..

0 1 Reply
Dr Dillip K Swain 21 June 2021

Terrifying innocence on my face...unveils the very core of the poem!

0 1 Reply
Kevin Patrick 21 June 2021

True poetry of the highest caliber. History is alive when we are dead.

0 1 Reply
Rose Marie Juan-austin 21 June 2021

A well expressed and perceptive write.

0 1 Reply
Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell

Boston / United States
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