WATER* Allaweep mistborn bursts the slow• wittering rivulets seep the stillwomb : mothermild waterfold• hollowlowlay• bold• wavers• wells to knitbound stithmood : tears the lowthrough• out• thrusts the flickquick : teems the mere . . where wallowboomhollow berounds the sound• stream• mood moves from still to brimstream : waterstream stirs the mare to mereflood• whelms the shore with leaplift la• • sh• boomhollowbreak broutseethe : all• long leaps the ith . . or gushstream swills• or stillpool lolls : or drip• or drop : or drop . .(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