Skipwith Cannell. A Riddle. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

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

A Riddle

By Skipwith Cannéll


From “Songs of Hunger” BITTER as tears
That for years
Are unshed;
Ashen and gray
As a day	5
That is dead;
Evil and ill,
With a chill
O’ the vault;
Barren as beaches	10
God leaches
With salt;
Hopeless as morrows
In sorrows
Immersed;	15
Desolate, grim,
Like a hymn
Of the cursed;
Lone as a cry
From the sky	20
Or the sea:
Answer my saying
In praying—
For me.