The Air Plant
Harold Hart Crane 1899 (Garrettsville, Ohio) – 1932 (Gulf of Mexico)
Grand Cayman
This tuft that thrives on saline nothingness,
Inverted octopus with heavenward arms
Thrust parching from a palm-bole hard by the cove⎯
A bird almost⎯of almost bird alarms,
Is pulmonary to the wind that jars
Its tentacles, horrific in their lurch.
The lizard’s throat, held bloated for a fly,
Balloons but warily from this throbbing perch.
The needles and hack-saws of cactus bleed
A milk of earth when stricken off the stalk;
But this,⎯defenseless, thornless, sheds no blood,
Almost no shadow⎯but the air’s thin talk.
Angelic Dynamo! Ventriloquist of the Blue!
While beachward creeps the shark-swept Spanish Main
By what conjunctions do the winds appoint
Its apotheosis, at last⎯the hurricane!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 35 sec read
- 66 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC XDXD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 732 |
Words | 118 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Air Plant" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/16825/the-air-plant>.
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