Medusa by Louise Bogan

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 26, 2016   Medusa   Louise Bogan

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees, Facing a sheer sky. Everything moved,—a bell hung ready to strike, Sun and reflection wheeled by.   When the bare eyes were before me And the hissing hair, Held up at a window, seen through a door. The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead Formed in the air.   This is a dead scene forever now. Nothing will ever stir. The end will never brighten it more than this, Nor the rain blur.   The water will always fall, and will not fall, And the tipped bell make no sound. The grass will always be growing for hay Deep on the ground.   And I shall stand here like a shadow Under the great balanced day, My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind, And does not drift away.            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “Medusa” was first published in The New Republic in December of 1921.   Louise Bogan was born in Livermore Falls, Maine, on August 11, 1897. Her collections of poetry include Body of This Death (Robert M. McBride & Company, 1923), Dark Summer (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929), and The Sleeping Fury (Charles Scribner’s Son’s, 1937). She died in 1970. Poetry by Bogan   The Blue Estuaries (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004) "Filling Station" by Elizabeth Bishop "The Storm" by Theodore Roethke "The Sun Has Long Been Set" by William Wordsworth Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038