Roman Fountain

(Louise Bogan, poet laureate,
1945-1946)

ROMAN FOUNTAIN

Up from the bronze, I saw
Water without a flaw,
Rush to rest in air,
Reach to its rest, and fall.

Bronze of the blackest shade,
An element man-made,
Shaping upright the bare
Clear gouts of water in air.

O, as with arm and hammer,
Still it is good to strive
To beat out the image whole,
To echo the shout and stammer
When full-gushed waters, alive,
Strike on the fountain’s bowl
After the air of summer.

~ Louise Bogan (1897-1970), American poet, critic, and translator