Sunday, June 17, 2012

"O Voice That Ever Wanderest O'er The Earth"

Today was blustery, and along the road I walked I could see and hear the green "unresting castles thresh."  I know full well that the World keeps its own counsel.  But it is hard not to listen for a message in these leafy, emphatic iterations.

                       Wind

O voice that ever wanderest o'er the earth
     Lamenting, roaring, sighing,
Where was thy place of birth,
     And where shall be thy dying?

Theresa Whistler (editor), The Collected Poems of Mary Coleridge (1954).

                                Trevor Makinson, "Street Scene" (1948)

Coleridge's poem is reminiscent of a poem by Wallace Stevens (which has appeared here before):

     To the Roaring Wind

What syllable are you seeking,
Vocalissimus,
In the distances of sleep?
Speak it.

Wallace Stevens, Harmonium (1923).

                                Trevor Makinson, "Fishing Boats" (1946)

And, on a quieter closing note:

Twilight -- the only conversation
     on this hill
Is the wind blowing through the pines.

Ryokan, in John Stevens (translator), One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan (1977).

                              Trevor Makinson, "Maryhill Goods Yard"

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