'Innocense of heart, violence of feeling'

 

“Innocence of heart and violence of feeling are necessary in any kind of superior achievement: The arts cannot exist without them.” –  Louise Bogan

 

Born in Maine in August of 1897 (she died in 1970) Bogan published her first book Body of This Death: Poems, in 1923.  She wrote several bestselling books of poetry then became the longtime poetry editor for The New Yorker magazine.  Named U.S. Poet Laureate in 1945, her works are still widely shared and studied.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Bogan’s,

                                         Roman Fountain

Up from the bronze, I saw
Water without a flaw
Rush to its 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.