Coming to This

Mark Strand 1934 (Summerville, PEI) – 2014 (Brooklyn, NY)



We have done what we wanted.
We have discarded dreams, preferring the heavy industry   
of each other, and we have welcomed grief
and called ruin the impossible habit to break.

And now we are here.
The dinner is ready and we cannot eat.   
The meat sits in the white lake of its dish.   
The wine waits.

Coming to this
has its rewards: nothing is promised, nothing is taken away.   
We have no heart or saving grace,
no place to go, no reason to remain.
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Written on 1979

Submitted by Drone232 on May 03, 2022

Modified on April 17, 2023

28 sec read
29

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XXXX XXXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 455
Words 95
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

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    "Coming to This" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/125949/coming-to-this>.

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