Day 14 of the Spring Ango--Poetry In The Air

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the 
doting

fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science
prodded
thy

beauty, how
often have religions taken
then upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightiest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest

them only with

spring)



--e e cummings

O sweet spontaneous was originally published in The Dial, Volume LXVlll, Number 5 (May 1920).
New York:  The Dial Publishing Co., Inc.