Thought.
A swift, successive chain of things,
That flash, kaleidoscope-like, now in, now out,
Now straight, now eddying in wild rings,
No order, neither law, compels their moves,
But endless, constant, always swiftly roves.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on February 28, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Thought.” originally appeared in Violets and Other Tales (The Monthly Review, 1895).
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson was born on July 19, 1875, in New Orleans. Her mother was Patricia Wright, a seamstress, and her father, Joseph Moore, was a merchant marine. Nelson earned a teaching degree at Straight University (now, Dillard University) in 1892 at age seventeen. She then taught in the local public school system as an elementary school teacher until 1931.