Emmy Veronica Sanders. Hill Speech. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Hill Speech

By Emmy Veronica Sanders


From “Antagonisms” I LISTENED to the hills as they spoke
At nightfall.

I listened to the haughty calm flowing of line speech,
And to vehement words
Jagged and bitten into the sky face.	5
I saw hieroglyphs scrawled on a pale wall of sky
With fingers of granite.
There was motion gripping the masses
Urging and waving
Onward.	10
I heard cadences of hill speech
Falling and rising
Softly,
With soothing interference.

And there was one standing alone on the smoldering horizon,	15
Standing aloof and detached
Always;
Saying “I” and “I” and “I,”
Answering “No” and “No” and “No”—
Always—	20
To the biting words and to the flowing line speech,
And to the hieroglyphs scrawled with fingers of granite.

There was one
Saying “No”
To the dull gray abysses	25
Of sky and of sea—
Saying “No”
To the masses….