The End of the World

Archibald MacLeish 1892 (Glencoe) – 1982 (Boston)



Quite unexpectedly, as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe,
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumb
Quite unexpectedly to top blew off:

And there, there overhead, there, there hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark, the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the cancelled skies,
There in the sudden blackness the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing -- nothing at all.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 14, 2023

31 sec read
237

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCXCX DEDEXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 598
Words 104
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Archibald MacLeish

Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer, and the Librarian of Congress. more…

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