O sweet spontaneous (1920)
by Edward Estlin Cummings
292875O sweet spontaneous1920Edward Estlin Cummings
O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

               fingers of
prurient philosophies pinched
and
poked

thee
has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

      beauty        how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy
knees squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
       but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

       thou answerest

them only with

                     spring

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1962, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 61 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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