Hi friends, Justin here.
This is my favorite poem. It's by James Merrill. I remember finding it, I think when I was in high school, as I was flipping through an enormous collection of Merrill's poetry in a bookstore. It's been tossing around in my head for years. It's part of a longer poem titled "Family Week at Oracle Ranch."
This part goes:
"The great recurrent 'sinner' found
In Dostoyevski--twisted mouth,
Stormlit eyes--before whose irresistible
Unworthiness the pure in heart bow down . . .
Cockcrow. Back across the frozen Neva
To samovar and warm, untubercular bed,
Far from the dens of vodka, mucus, and semen,
They dream. I woke, the fever
Dripping insight, a spring thaw.
You and the others, wrestling with your demons,
Christs of self-hatred, Livingstones of pain,
Had drawn the lightning. In a flash I saw
My future: medic at some Armageddon
Neither side wins. I burned with SHAME for the years
You'd spent among sufferings uncharted--
Not even my barren love to rest your head on."
Poem source:
Merrill, James. "5. Effects of Early 'Religious Abuse'" The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-1997. Ed. Harold Bloom and David Lehman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. 204-05. Google. Web (Google eBook). 30 July 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=Vsd9jwYZ5HEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
This is my favorite poem. It's by James Merrill. I remember finding it, I think when I was in high school, as I was flipping through an enormous collection of Merrill's poetry in a bookstore. It's been tossing around in my head for years. It's part of a longer poem titled "Family Week at Oracle Ranch."
This part goes:
"The great recurrent 'sinner' found
In Dostoyevski--twisted mouth,
Stormlit eyes--before whose irresistible
Unworthiness the pure in heart bow down . . .
Cockcrow. Back across the frozen Neva
To samovar and warm, untubercular bed,
Far from the dens of vodka, mucus, and semen,
They dream. I woke, the fever
Dripping insight, a spring thaw.
You and the others, wrestling with your demons,
Christs of self-hatred, Livingstones of pain,
Had drawn the lightning. In a flash I saw
My future: medic at some Armageddon
Neither side wins. I burned with SHAME for the years
You'd spent among sufferings uncharted--
Not even my barren love to rest your head on."
James Merrill (taken by Rollie McKenna in 1952)
Image source: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/217
Poem source:
Merrill, James. "5. Effects of Early 'Religious Abuse'" The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-1997. Ed. Harold Bloom and David Lehman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. 204-05. Google. Web (Google eBook). 30 July 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=Vsd9jwYZ5HEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false>.
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