The Mind
A Fear
From Songs of Peace (1917)
I roamed the woods to-day and seemed to hear,
As Dante heard, the voice of suffering trees.
The twisted roots seemed bare contorted knees,
The bark was full of faces strange with fear.
I hurried home still wrapt in that dark spell,
And all the night upon the world's great lie
I pondered, and a voice seemed whisp'ring nigh,
"You died long since, and all this thing is hell!"
Codex Note
In the woods Ledwidge seems to hear, 'as Dante heard', the voice of suffering trees. A sonnet that ends on a whispered doubt: 'You died long since, and all this thing is hell!'
Cite this poem
MLA
Ledwidge, Francis. “A Fear.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/18/.
Chicago
Ledwidge, Francis. “A Fear.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/ledwidge/18/.
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