#MIDDLEBURY
Medusa
Louise Bogan
I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved, – a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.
When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.
This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.
The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.
And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.
About this poem
“Medusa” was first published in The New Republic in December of 1921.
About Louise Bogan
Louise Bogan was born in Livermore Falls, Maine, on Aug. 11, 1897. Her collections of poetry include “Body of This Death” (Robert M. McBride & Company, 1923), “Dark Summer” (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929) and “The Sleeping Fury” (Charles Scribner’s Son’s, 1937). She died in 1970.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
