XDA

I Knew a Woman

I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I'd have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.)

How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin:
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing did we make.)

Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved.)

Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I'm martyr to a motion not my own;
What's freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways.)


Theodore Roethke

An American poem this time, but one Roethke included in a book titled Words for the Wind (1957)--clearly a reference to Catullus' Carmen LXX, the bonus Poem of the Month in June. (We're done with Catullus. Horace in August).

This is a great love poem full of beautiful images and quite a few sexual double entendre, all of which (images and entendres) move more ways than one, so that the image in one line becomes the sensual suggestion in another. There is, for example, two ways to go with the Greek reference--bawdy and high rhetorical. The Brits brought up on Greek are the only ones who can speak of her 'choice virtues' as they sing cheek to cheek (I'm not thinking about a face). The poet comes behind her during the prodigious mowing, suggesting both a position appropriate to Brits brought up on Greek and holding out until the woman is fully satisfied (as all gentleman should strive to do) hip quivering in repose. The Greek reference also leads us to remember that "Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand," in addition to their sexual suggestiveness, are the English equivalent of the Greek strophe, antistrophe, and epode. The woman is also the Muse Erato, whose turn and re-turn serve as inspiration for the poet's use of language. "Counter-turn" is also a term for the rhetorical device of repeating words in an inverse order, as in "(She moved in circles, and those circles moved)." Indeed, the poem's very words move in circles and those circles move. I haven't asked you to read my sodden translations of Latin beauty out loud but this poem demands to be read out loud. Try it.