Last Answers

Carl Sandburg 1878 (Galesburg) – 1967 (Flat Rock)



I wrote a poem on the mist
And a woman asked me what I meant by it.
I had thought till then only of the beauty of the mist,
how pearl and gray of it mix and reel,
And change the drab shanties with lighted lamps at evening
into points of mystery quivering with color.

I answered:
The whole world was mist once long ago and some day
it will all go back to mist,
Our skulls and lungs are more water than bone and tissue
And all poets love dust and mist because all the last answers
Go running back to dust and mist.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
43

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAXXX XXAXXA
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 509
Words 107
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 6

Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor best known for poetry. more…

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    "Last Answers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4702/last-answers>.

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