THE HAGGARD woman with a hacking cough and a deathless love whispers of white
flowers … in your poem you pour like a cup of coffee, Gabriel.

The slim girl whose voice was lost in the waves of flesh piled on her bones … and
the woman who sold to many men and saw her breasts shrivel … in two poems you
pour these like a cup of coffee, Francois.

The woman whose lips are a thread of scarlet, the woman whose feet take hold on
hell, the woman who turned to a memorial of salt looking at the lights of a
forgotten city … in your affidavits, ancient Jews, you pour these like cups of
coffee.

The woman who took men as snakes take rabbits, a rag and a bone and a hank of
hair, she whose eyes called men to sea dreams and shark’s teeth … in a poem you
pour this like a cup of coffee, Kip.

Marching to the footlights in night robes with spots of blood, marching in white
sheets muffling the faces, marching with heads in the air they come back and
cough and cry and sneer:… in your poems, men, you pour these like cups of coffee.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Carl Sandburg's poem Cups of Coffee

2 Comments

  1. stacywells says:

    the poet had full sight, while drinking his staples.

  2. kirby says:

    this is an interesting poem…can you explain the ties between cups of coffee and the tragedy of the poem? at least, i gather that it’s a rather tragic poem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Carl Sandburg better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.