I Used to Think

Trumbull Stickney 1874 (Geneva) – 1904



I used to think
The mind essential in the body, even
As stood the body essential in the mind:
Two inseparable things, by nature equal
And similar, and in creation's song
Halving the total scale: it is not so.
Unlike and cross like driftwood sticks they come
Churned in the giddy trough: a chunk of pine,
A slab of rosewood: mangled each on each
With knocks and friction, or in deadly pain
Sheathing each other's splinters: till at last
Without all stuff or shape they 're jetted up
Where in the bluish moisture rot whate'er
Was vomited in horror from the sea.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
111

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLMN
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 557
Words 104
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Trumbull Stickney

Joseph Trumbull Stickney was an American classical scholar and poet. more…

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