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1874–1925

Patience

Amy Lowell

Be patient with you? When the stooping sky Leans down upon the hills And tenderly, as one who soothing stills

An anguish, gathers earth to lie Embraced and girdled. Do the sun-filled men Feel patience then? Be patient with you?

When the snow-girt earth Cracks to let through a spurt Of sudden green, and from the muddy dirt A snowdrop leaps, how mark its worth

To eyes frost-hardened, and do weary men Feel patience then? Be patient with you? When pain's iron bars

Their rivets tighten, stern To bend and break their victims; as they turn, Hopeless, there stand the purple jars Of night to spill oblivion. Do these men

Feel patience then? Be patient with you? You! My sun and moon! My basketful of flowers!

My money-bag of shining dreams! My hours, Windless and still, of afternoon! You are my world and I your citizen. What meaning can have patience then?

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Patience · Amy Lowell · Poetry Cove