Really Cool thing #994: National Poetry Month

OK, since everybody else is doing it, I might as well jump on the bandwagon too. I'm posting the only two poems I remember from High School. I'm sure my AP english teacher, Mrs. Storey (yes thats really her name) would be shocked I remembered anything. I know she was shocked that I actually passed the test.

I memorized them mainly because they were short, but also because I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. They also had particularly interesting rythmic devices which seem to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor... or something like that.
To be honest I had to google the second one to get the words right. They're both by Stephen Crane



A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."




In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."