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Rilke (for Mardi*)
- Article from:
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Caribbean Quarterly
- Article date:
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March 1, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright University of the West Indies Mar-Jun 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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"All that was a trust.
But were you equal to it? Were you not always distracted by expectation, as though all this were announcing someone to love? "
The First Elegy.
For seven years, eyesockets like caves,
He watched in the mountains over the city
For the coming of the printless beast. But
In his mind's known home, continued usual,
Order undisturbed, the cushioned cat,
The twitching dog asleep on the mat,
And his fed fire, private, stern,
Keeping its anguished dialogue of coals:
Small poems in the lessening light.
Now past his prime, he watched at night
The logbook thicken with his soul's
Entries, the low controlled fire turn
Strange shapes off its silent walls.
He could discern nothing. ...