9, 19, 1939

VOL. LVII NO. II

DECEMBER 1940

FIVE POEMS

9, 19, 1939

TE morning Hitler spoke in Danzig, we heard his voice.

A man of genius: that is, of amazing

Ability, courage, devotion, cored on a sick child's soul,

Heard clearly through the dog-wrath, a sick child

Wailing in Danzig, invoking destruction and wailing at it.

Here, the day was extremely hot; about noon

A south wind like a blast from hell's mouth spilled a slight rain

On the parched land, and at five a light earthquake

Danced the house, no harm done. Just now I have been amusing

myself

Watching the blood-red moon droop slowly

Into black sea through bursts of dry lightning and distant thunder.

Well: the day isa poem: but too much

Like one of Jeffers's, heavy with blood and barbaric symbols,

Painful to excess, inhuman as a hawk's cry.