Trumbull Stickney

Harvard University Lodge-Stickney Memorial bookplate

Leave Him Now Quiet By The Way

Leave him now quiet by the way 
To rest apart. 
I know what draws him to the dust alway 
And churns him in the builder's lime: 
He has the fright of time. 

I heard it knocking in his breast 
A minute since; 
His human eyes did wince, 
He stubborned like the massive slaughter beast 
And as a thing o'erwhelmed with sound 
Stood bolted to the ground. 

Leave him, for rest alone can cure— 
If cure there be— 
This waif upon the sea. 
He is of those who slanted the great door 
And listened—wretched little lad— 
To what they said.

John Ashbery

  The New Spirit (excerpt) I thought that if I could put it all down, that would be one way. And next the thought came to me that to leave a...