Postlude
Postlude - context Summary
Published 1917 in Al Que Quiere!
Published in 1917 within Williams’arlos Williams’ollection Al Que Quiere!, "Postlude" is a short dramatic address that fuses erotic intimacy with mythic, classical allusion. The speaker announces a coolness yet immediately summons sensual reunion through images of Venus, Carthage and Philae. The poem’ompresses longing and defiance into compact, imagistic lines, reflecting the modernist interest in economy of language and vivid concrete detail.
Read Complete AnalysesNOW that I have cooled to you Let there be gold of tarnished masonry, Temples soothed by the sun to ruin That sleep utterly. Give me hand for the dances, Ripples at Philae, in and out, And lips, my Lesbian, Wall flowers that once were flame. Your hair is my Carthage And my arms the bow, And our words arrows To shoot the stars Who from that misty sea Swarm to destroy us. But you there beside me— Oh, how shall I defy you, Who wound me in the night With breasts shining Like Venus and like Mars? The night that is shouting Jason When the loud eaves rattle As with waves above me Blue at the prow of my desire.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.