Warding Off Baby-Head

Earlier this summer I decided to try memorizing one poem a week. So far I have not been very disciplined in sticking with it; I have only gotten through two poems. So today I sat my self down and got to it. I figured I would share because poetry makes me happy and maybe it will make someone else so. And it will help me to remember them better. The poem I chose for this week is by Amy Lowell, an American poet from the early 20th century. Hopefully someone else will enjoy it as much as I do:

September, 1918

This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves;
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.

Some day there will be no war.
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers,
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
To-day I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.

Amy Lowell
1919


In case you are wondering, the other two poems are "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden and "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams (which can be found on the right of this page).