Love
Intrigue IV. Once I saw thee idly rocking
From War Is Kind (1899)
Once I saw thee idly rocking
--Idly rocking--
And chattering girlishly to other girls,
Bell-voiced, happy,
Careless with the stout heart of unscarred
womanhood,
And life to thee was all light melody.
I thought of the great storms of love as I
knew it,
Torn, miserable, and ashamed of my open
sorrow,
I thought of the thunders that lived in my
head,
And I wish to be an ogre,
And hale and haul my beloved to a castle,
And make her mourn with my mourning.
Cite this poem
MLA
Crane, Stephen. “Intrigue IV. Once I saw thee idly rocking.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/crane/97/.
Chicago
Crane, Stephen. “Intrigue IV. Once I saw thee idly rocking.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/crane/97/.
Read this poem with the Codex →