Published on Academy of American Poets (https://poets.org)

Tonight No Poetry Will Serve

Saw you walking barefoot
taking a long look
at the new moon's eyelid

later spread
sleep-fallen, naked in your dark hair
asleep but not oblivious
of the unslept unsleeping
elsewhere

Tonight I think
no poetry
will serve

Syntax of rendition:

verb pilots the plane
adverb modifies action

verb force-feeds noun
submerges the subject
noun is choking
verb    disgraced    goes on doing

now diagram the sentence


2007

Credit

From Tonight No Poetry Will Serve, published by W.W. Norton. Copyright © 2011 by Adrienne Rich. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Author

Adrienne Rich

The author of numerous collections of poetry, Adrienne Rich wrote poems examining such things as women's role in society, racism, politics, and war.

Date Published: 2011-01-01

Source URL: https://poets.org/poem/tonight-no-poetry-will-serve