Out of Tune
Out of Tune
Original Text
Palace–Burner: The Selected Poetry of Sarah Piatt (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001): 110.
1Someone has told you that the moon is old?
2(Do you not see to-night that it is new?)
3It just pretends that it is made of gold;
4It's made of – matter? (Matter means what's true.)
5A rainbow is not sure enough at all?
6The sky is nothing, only it looks blue?
7Some night, you guess, the stars will have to fall
8Down in the grass when everything breaks through?
9Some things are pretty, but they will not stay?
10Out on the cliff you saw the reddest rose,
11The wind or something blew it right away –
12That black rock lasts forever where it grows?
13The butterflies are only worms with wings?
14Without them they would not know how to fly?
15And we are sinners? Girls should not wear rings
16And gloves and sashes – for they have to die?
17The sun shines sometimes, but it always rains
18Forever, so you can't play in the sand?
19Walnuts and berries spoil your hands with stains?
20And – no one knows the way to fairy land?
Publication Start Year
1881
Publication Notes
Wide-Awake (June 1881).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
Rhyme
Form