Black Stone on Top of a White Stone

Cesar Vallejo 1892 (Santiago de Chuco Province) – 1938 (Paris)



I shall die in Paris, in a rainstorm,
On a day I already remember.
I shall die in Paris-- it does not bother me--
Doubtless on a Thursday, like today, in autumn.

It shall be a Thursday, because today, Thursday
As I put down these lines, I have set my shoulders
To the evil. Never like today have I turned,
And headed my whole journey to the ways where I am alone.

César Vallejo is dead. They struck him,
All of them, though he did nothing to them,
They hit him hard with a stick and hard also
With the end of a rope. Witnesses are: the Thursdays,
The shoulder bones, the loneliness, the rain, and the roads...

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
128

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXX XXXX XXXXX
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 606
Words 120
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 5

Cesar Vallejo

César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright, and journalist. more…

All Cesar Vallejo poems | Cesar Vallejo Books

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    "Black Stone on Top of a White Stone" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4872/black-stone-on-top-of-a-white-stone>.

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