Tell Me, Where is the Soul
When we cut open the frog, we found the heart
slowly rid of its functions, its small beating,
still beating then just still. The focused eye,
the steady hand, I understand that stillness
is a way to knowing. When we opened the heart,
we found more of the heart and nothing more.
Oh, we know them by many names -- the soul,
the spirit. What measures we have taken:
You split the lark to find the song; the swan
to collect the golden eggs; when they opened the door,
the room drank in its first taste of light for many months
and the boy locked up for many years
couldn't speak, has forgotten how to speak.
Silence is the primal language, and each day
many are called to remember: the man
who didn't wake, the child who failed to return
from school, the purple-gray body on the autopsy table.
After the dissection, we were asked to scrape off
the skin and muscles, and name every bone --
here is where the heart was,
here the lungs, here the low croak.
Font size:
Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 0 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDAEFGHEIJKLMNOPQRS |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 930 |
Words | 180 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 21 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Tell Me, Where is the Soul" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/85813/tell-me,-where-is-the-soul>.
Discuss the poem Tell Me, Where is the Soul with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In