smell!
TRANSCRIPT
Smell!Author(s): William Carlos WilliamsSource: Poetry, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Jul., 1917), p. 196Published by: Poetry FoundationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20571293 .
Accessed: 15/05/2014 23:56
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POETRY: a Magazine of Verse
"Here I am with head high and a
Burning heart eagerly awaiting Your caresses, whoever it may be, For granite is not harder than
My love is open, runs loose among you!
"I arrogant against death! I
Who have endured! I worn against The years!"
SMELL!
O strong-ridged and deeply hollowed Nose of mine!-what will you not be smelling? What tactless asses we are, you and I, bony nose, Always indiscriminate, always unashamed! And now it is the souring flowers of the bedraggled
Poplars-a festering pulp on the wet earth
Beneath them-with what deep a thirst
We quicken our desires, 0 nose of mine, To that rank odor of a passing springtime!
Can you not be decent? Can you not reserve your ardors
For something less unlovely? What girl will care For us, do you think, if we continue in these ways?
Must you taste everything? Must you know everything? Must you have a part in everything?
William Carlos Williams
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