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Sonnet 12

John Berryman

Mutinous in half-light,&malignant, grind
Fears on desires, a clutter humps a track,
The body of expectation hangs down slack
Untidy black; my love sweats like a rind;
Parrots are yattering up the cagy mind,
Jerking their circles... you stood, a week back,
By, I saw your foot with half my eye, I lack
You... the damned female's yellow head swings blind.

Cageless they'd grapple. O where, whose Martini
Grows sweeter with my torment, wrung on toward
The insomnia of eternity, loud graves!
Hölderlin on his tower sang like the sea
More you adored that day than your harpsicord,
Troubled and drumming, tempting and empty waves.


Submitted by Holt

Added: 1 Mar 2004 | Last Read: 28 Jun 2025 8:23 AM | Viewed: 3632 times

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URL: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/9194/ | Viewed on 28 June 2025.
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