EARTH* All• long or• earth ages spin the soft to unsoft hardened earthboll• grim the eggcrust• knit the allwrasm clombond hell . . all• long or• earth earks and cares and drees and dreams• • while day by day by dayred mornlight eatgiver grovels in the grist and awe and aware hie forth : to rive and rise and reap and rot : and tether and team and thrill and thrust : and hulk and harrow and heave and heel . . O evenrest and sleep! . . erce : erce : erce : earthmother. or• earth ages hold the fold.(1934)_____________________________
* Cox intended his ‘nature poems’ to be read aloud, and developed a
typography to guide the reader. A key to these typographical cues is given in
the Preliminary Note to the Gogmagog book, 9 POEMS FROM NATURE (1959),
which is a sequence of nature poems from 1937:. [full stop] = a pause of one full breath.
. . [two full stops] = a pause of two full breaths, etc.
: [colon] = a half-breath pause.
• [elevated, smaller dot] = a slight pause without taking breath.- BH/03