William Carlos Williams

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Mind's Evasive Idleness

The speaker addresses their own intellect as a separate, cunning entity and wonders how it can remain idle. The short poem captures a mix of admiration and puzzlement: the speaker envies the brain's capacity for inaction, feeling unable to emulate its quietude. It condenses a personal tension between thought and will, presenting mental passivity as an enigmatic skill the speaker wishes to learn.

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Subtle, clever brain, wiser than I am, by what devious means do you contrive to remain idle? Teach me, O master.

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