Cold Blooded Creatures

Elinor Wylie 1885 (Somerville) – 1928



Man, the egregious egoist,
(In mystery the twig is bent,)
Imagines, by some mental twist,
That he alone is sentient

Of the intolerable load
Which on all living creatures lies,
Nor stoops to pity in the toad
The speechless sorrow of its eyes.

He asks no questions of the snake,
Nor plumbs the phosphorescent gloom
Where lidless fishes, broad awake,
Swim staring at a night-mare doom.

About this poem

Elinor Wylie, “Cold Blooded Creatures” from Selected Works of Elinor Wylie, edited by Evelyn Helmick Hively (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2005).

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Submitted by Drone232 on September 12, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

22 sec read
12

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAAA ABAB CDCD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 384
Words 75
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Elinor Wylie

Elinor Morton Wylie was an American poet and novelist popular in the 1920s and 1930s. "She was famous during her life almost as much for her ethereal beauty and personality as for her melodious, sensuous poetry." more…

All Elinor Wylie poems | Elinor Wylie Books

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    "Cold Blooded Creatures" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/137546/cold-blooded-creatures>.

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