HE SINGS BECAUSE HIS WIFE HAS GONE OUT OF
THE HOUSE
by: Vincent O'Sullivan
(1868?-1940)
- E sings
because his wife has gone out of the house:
- Bending over the table in the twilight of the room
- He sings soft old things he sang when he was a boy,
- And near his chair stays listening a grey mouse.
-
- He sings because the gay loud woman is out in the town,
- And in his heart there is a quiet, and the room is so still
- That the grey mouse preens its whiskers far away from the
wall,
- For the man's voice is dreamy and kind like those who are
very ill.
-
- And he wonders if some day his wife will go out of the house
- And leave him alone with the mouse, too still to feel more
- Than the waves and the waves of quiet in the darkened room,
- As he lies with the sun on his face through a chink in the
door.
"He Sings Because His Wife
has Gone Out of the House" is reprinted from The Masque
of Poets. Ed. Edward J. O'Brien. New York: Dodd, Mead and
Company, 1918. |
MORE
POEMS BY VINCENT O'SULLIVAN |
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