Body of This Death/Men Loved Wholly Beyond Wisdom

Body of This Death
by Louise Bogan
Men Loved Wholly Beyond Wisdom
3725550Body of This Death — Men Loved Wholly Beyond WisdomLouise Bogan

MEN LOVED WHOLLY BEYOND WISDOM

Men loved wholly beyond wisdom
Have the staff without the banner.
Like a fire in a dry thicket
Rising within women's eyes
Is the love men must return.
Heart, so subtle now, and trembling,
What a marvel to be wise,
To love never in this manner!
To be quiet in the fern
Like a thing gone dead and still,
Listening to the prisoned cricket
Shake its terrible, dissembling
Music in the granite hill.