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October 19, 2013
The Magpie's Shadow
 
 

I. IN WINTER

 

Myself

Pale mornings, and 

   I rise. 

 

Still Morning

Snow air--my fingers curl.

 

Awakening

New snow, O pine of dawn!

 

Winter Echo

Thin air! My mind is gone.

 

The Hunter

Run! In the magpie's shadow.

 

No Being

I, bent. Thin nights receding. 

 

 

II. IN SPRING

 

Spring

I walk out the world's door.

 

May

Oh, evening in my hair!

 

Spring Rain

My doorframe smells of leaves.

 

Song

Why should I stop

   for spring?

 

 

III. IN SUMMER AND AUTUMN

 

Sunrise

Pale bees! O whither now?

 

Fields

I did not pick

   a flower.

 

At Evening

Like leaves my feet passed by.

 

Cool Nights

At night bare feet on flowers!

 

Sleep

Like winds my eyelids close.

 

The Aspen's Song

The summer holds me here.

 

The Walker

In dream my feet are still. 

 

Blue Mountains

A deer walks that mountain.

 

God of Roads

I, peregrine of noon. 

 

September

Faint gold! O think not here.

 

A Lady

She's sun on autumn leaves. 

 

Alone

I saw day's shadow strike.

 

A Deer

The trees rose in the dawn.

 

Man in Desert

His feet run as eyes blink. 

 

Desert

The tented autumn, gone!

 

The End

Dawn rose, and desert shrunk.

 

High Valleys

In sleep I filled these lands.

 

Awaiting Snow

The well of autumn--dry.


 

  

Today's poem is in the public domain. 

About This Poem
The Magpie's Shadow was published in 1922 as a collection of short, experimental poems. While studying at the University of Chicago, Winters was diagnosed with tuberculosis and decided to relocate to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the sake of his health. His early poems, published in 1921 and 1922, were all written at a tuberculosis sanitarium.
Poetry by Winters

(Library of America, 2003)

 

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Yvor Winters was born in Chicago, Illinois. He spent two years teaching at the University of Idaho in Moscow before entering Stanford University as a graduate student. From 1928 until his death, he was a member of the Stanford English department. Winters, a prolific and controversial poet and critic, believed that a work of art should be "an act of moral judgement." He died in 1968 in Palo Alto, California.

 


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