Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

That Harp You Play So Well

Marianne Moore

O DAVID, if I had

Your power, I should be glad—

In harping, with the sling,

In patient reasoning!

Blake, Homer, Job, and you,

Have made old wine-skins new.

Your energies have wrought

Stout continents of thought.

But, David, if the heart

Be brass, what boots the art

Of exorcising wrong,

Of harping to a song?

The sceptre and the ring

And every royal thing

Will fail. Grief’s lustiness

Must cure that harp’s distress.