"This weight of knowledge dark on the brain is never / To be burnt out like fever, // But will slowly, with speech to tell the way and ease it, / Will sink into the blood, and warm, and slowly / Move in the veins, and murmur, and come at length / To the tongue's tip and the finger's tip most lowly / And will belong to the body wholly."
— Miles, Josephine (1911-1985)
Author
Work Title
Date
September, 1934
Metaphor
"This weight of knowledge dark on the brain is never / To be burnt out like fever, // But will slowly, with speech to tell the way and ease it, / Will sink into the blood, and warm, and slowly / Move in the veins, and murmur, and come at length / To the tongue's tip and the finger's tip most lowly / And will belong to the body wholly."
Metaphor in Context
When the mind is dark with the multiple shadows of facts,
There is no heat of the sun can warm the mind.
The facts lie streaked like the trunks of trees at evening,
Without the evening hope that they may find
Absorbent night and blind.
Howsoever sunset and summer bring rest
To the rheumatic by change, and howsoever
Sulphur's good medicine, this can have no cure--
This weight of knowledge dark on the brain is never
To be burnt out like fever,
But will slowly, with speech to tell the way and ease it,
Will sink into the blood, and warm, and slowly
Move in the veins, and murmur, and come at length
To the tongue's tip and the finger's tip most lowly
And will belong to the body wholly.
There is no heat of the sun can warm the mind.
The facts lie streaked like the trunks of trees at evening,
Without the evening hope that they may find
Absorbent night and blind.
Howsoever sunset and summer bring rest
To the rheumatic by change, and howsoever
Sulphur's good medicine, this can have no cure--
This weight of knowledge dark on the brain is never
To be burnt out like fever,
But will slowly, with speech to tell the way and ease it,
Will sink into the blood, and warm, and slowly
Move in the veins, and murmur, and come at length
To the tongue's tip and the finger's tip most lowly
And will belong to the body wholly.
Provenance
Reading in Trial Balances
Citation
First published in Poetry: see Josephine Miles, "Physiologus," Poetry 44:6 (September, 1934): 307.
Republished in Trial Balances, ed. Ann Winslow [Verna Grubb] (New York: The Macmillan company, 1935), p. 23.
Republished in Trial Balances, ed. Ann Winslow [Verna Grubb] (New York: The Macmillan company, 1935), p. 23.
Date of Entry
06/18/2018
