Listening - A poem by Amy Lowell


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Amy Lowell - Listening

'T is you that are the music, not your song.
The song is but a door which, opening wide,
Lets forth the pent-up melody inside,
Your spirit's harmony, which clear and strong
Sings but of you.  Throughout your whole life long
Your songs, your thoughts, your doings, each divide
This perfect beauty; waves within a tide,
Or single notes amid a glorious throng.
The song of earth has many different chords;
Ocean has many moods and many tones
Yet always ocean.  In the damp Spring woods
The painted trillium smiles, while crisp pine cones
Autumn alone can ripen.  So is this
One music with a thousand cadences.

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Added: Feb 1 2004 | Viewed: 10897 times |

Comments (1)

Listening - Comments and Information
Poet: Amy Lowell Poem: 7. Listening Volume: A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass - Sonnets Comment 1 of 1, added on March 20th, 2010 at 11:18 AM. Listening General poetry reading is not my forte, but I am often "stopped" by particular poems. I became aware of "Listening" through the choral composition "You Are the Music" by Dan Forrest. Since in my own life experience I have often struggled with the same seeming dichotomy of the music and the song (Marshall Macluhan to the contrary notwithstanding), I could not help being arrested by the music, first, and then the poem. For me, it is a notable marriage. Stuart Rapp from United States More Comments >> Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, Listening, has received one comment so far. Click here to read it, and perhaps post a comment of your own.

Poem Info
Poet: Amy Lowell Poem: 7. Listening Volume: A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass - Sonnets Last read: 2013-06-19 04:02:49 Viewed 10897 times. Added Feb 1 2004.

Lowell Info
Biography More Poems (152 poems) Amy Lowell books