"The State had reasons: on the whole, / It acted out of kindness when it locked / Its servants in this place and had him watched / Until an ordered darkness left his soul / A tabula rasa"
— Lowell, Robert (1917-1977)
Author
Publisher
Harcourt Brace
Date
1946
Metaphor
"The State had reasons: on the whole, / It acted out of kindness when it locked / Its servants in this place and had him watched / Until an ordered darkness left his soul / A tabula rasa"
Metaphor in Context
We kiss. The State had reasons: on the whole,
It acted out of kindness when it locked
Its servants in this place and had him watched
Until an ordered darkness left his soul
A tabula rasa; when the Angel knocked
The sheriff laid his notched
Revolver on the table for the guest.
Night draws us closer in its bearskin wrap
And our loved sightless smother feels the tap
Of the blind stars descending in the west.
(p. 71)
It acted out of kindness when it locked
Its servants in this place and had him watched
Until an ordered darkness left his soul
A tabula rasa; when the Angel knocked
The sheriff laid his notched
Revolver on the table for the guest.
Night draws us closer in its bearskin wrap
And our loved sightless smother feels the tap
Of the blind stars descending in the west.
(p. 71)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Reading Lord Weary's Castle and The Mills of Kavanaugh (San Diego and New York: Harcourt Brace Johanovich, 1983).
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
07/22/2024
