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Poems by Women

Convalescence

Amy Lowell

From out the dragging vastness of the sea,
      Wave-fettered, bound in sinuous, seaweed strands,
      He toils toward the rounding beach, and stands
One moment, white and dripping, silently,
Cut like a cameo in lazuli,
      Then falls, betrayed by shifting shells, and lands
      Prone in the jeering water, and his hands
Clutch for support where no support can be.
      So up, and down, and forward, inch by inch,
He gains upon the shore, where poppies glow
And sandflies dance their little lives away.
      The sucking waves retard, and tighter clinch
The weeds about him, but the land-winds blow,
And in the sky there blooms the sun of May.

From Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds By Amy Lowell

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This collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Collection © 1999-2002 Jone Johnson Lewis.

Citing poems from these pages:

Author. "Poem Title."  Women's History: Poems by Women. Jone Johnson Lewis, editor. URL: (date of logon)

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