"Do we act or do we think / when years roll round on a barber's pole, / when what is red is white is pink, / which is body which is soul?"
— Smith, William Jay (1918-2015)
Work Title
Date
December, 1942
Metaphor
"Do we act or do we think / when years roll round on a barber's pole, / when what is red is white is pink, / which is body which is soul?"
Metaphor in Context
All earth's divided in two parts,
they tell us--Mind and Matter;
but who is to say where the former starts,
who will define the latter?
Do we act or do we think
when years roll round on a barber's pole,
when what is red is white is pink,
which is body which is soul?
they tell us--Mind and Matter;
but who is to say where the former starts,
who will define the latter?
Do we act or do we think
when years roll round on a barber's pole,
when what is red is white is pink,
which is body which is soul?
Provenance
Reading
Citation
William Jay Smith, "All Earth's Divided," Poetry 61:3 (December, 1942) p. 477. <Link to www.poetryfoundation.org>
Date of Entry
06/14/2018
