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- I Knew a Woman
- By Theodore Roethke
- I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
- When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
- Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
- The shapes a bright container can contain!
- Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
- Or English poets who grew up on Greek
- (I’d have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek).
- How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
- She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand;
- She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin;
- I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
- She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
- Coming behind her for her pretty sake
- (But what prodigious mowing we did make).
- Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
- Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize;
- She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
- My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
- Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
- Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
- (She moved in circles, and those circles moved).
- Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
- I’m martyr to a motion not my own;
- What’s freedom for? To know eternity.
- I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
- But who would count eternity in days?
- These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
- (I measure time by how a body sways).
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