Randall Jarrell Time Poems
- 1. Jerome
Each day brings its toad, each night its dragon.
Der heilige Hieronymus--his lion is at the zoo--
Listens, listens. All the long, soft, summer day
Dreams affright his couch, the deep boils like a pot.
... - 2. Hope
The spirit killeth, but the letter giveth life.
The week is dealt out like a hand
That children pick up card by card.
One keeps getting the same hand.
... - 3. The Elementary Scene
Looking back in my mind I can see
The white sun like a tin plate
Over the wooden turning of the weeds;
The street jerking --a wet swing--
... - 4. The Lost World
I. Children's Arms
On my way home I pass a cameraman
On a platform on the bumper of a car
... - 5. Seele Im Raum
It sat between my husband and my children.
A place was set for itâ??a plate of greens.
It had been there: I had seen it
But not somehowâ??but this was like a dreamâ??
... - 6. The Old And The New Masters
About suffering, about adoration, the old masters
Disagree. When someone suffers, no one else eats
Or walks or opens the window--no one breathes
As the sufferers watch the sufferer.
... - 7. Children Selecting Books In A Library
With beasts and gods, above, the wall is bright.
The child's head, bent to the book-colored shelves,
Is slow and sidelong and food-gathering,
Moving in blind grace ... yet from the mural, Care
... - 8. The House In The Woods
At the back of the houses there is the wood.
While there is a leaf of summer left, the wood
Makes sounds I can put somewhere in my song,
...
