The Travelling Bear
Amy Lowell 1874 (Brookline) – 1925 (Brookline)
GRASS-BLADES push up between the cobblestones
And catch the sun on their flat sides
Shooting it back,
Gold and emerald,
Into the eyes of passers-by.
And over the cobblestones,
Square-footed and heavy,
Dances the trained bear.
The cobbles cut his feet,
And he has a ring in his nose
But still he dances,
For the keeper pricks him with a sharp stick,
Under his fur.
Now the crowd gapes and chuckles,
And boys and young women shuffle their feet in time to the dancing bear,
They see him wobbling
Against a dust of emerald and gold,
And they are greatly delighted.
The legs of the bear shake with fatigue
And his back aches,
And the shining grass-blades dazzle and confuse him.
But still he dances,
Because of the little, pointed stick.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 07, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 164 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | abcdeafghiJklmgnopqrsJk |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 740 |
Words | 133 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 23 |
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"The Travelling Bear" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/2344/the-travelling-bear>.
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