The Fable, Poem by Yvor Winters

The Fable

BY YVOR WINTERS

Beyond the steady rock the steady sea,

In movement more immovable than station,

Gathers and washes and is gone. It comes,

A slow obscure metonymy of motion,

Crumbling the inner barriers of the brain.

But the crossed rock braces the hills and makes

A steady quiet of the steady music,

Massive with peace.

And listen, now:

The foam receding down the sand silvers

Between the grains, thin, pure as virgin words,

Lending a sheen to Nothing, whispering.

Yvor Winters, “The Fable” from The Collected Poems of Yvor Winters. Used by permission of Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio.

Source: The Collected Poems of Yvor Winters (1960)

Original image for header by Daniel Gregoire on Unsplash

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