“Two Stanzas,” a Poem by Zbigniew Herbert

Two Stanzas

I. AUGUST

Womenfolk leaning on rakes like Pallases on spears
Grow huge in the shadows sent them from the sky’s torn
overcast ceiling; fiddles silent as lutes
Beyond bridge and echo—laughter of distant metaphors

To those departing in shadows drawn out by the sunset
The harvesters bring a lost report of us
Who were startled at Pompeii—cut in silence like amber
We faint with the utmost hush in the assonance of dusk

II. SEA

When you rush up to me as noise and vision
And grow in my eyes as the simplest figurative wave
The string snaps like a shoreline and I don’t know
If I’ll conquer you with the oar of ancient measures

Odysseus found a twig from Ithaca
And bids the horizons farewell—dead landscapes
Finished epics. A commotion and constant noise
A poem flares on the breath—rose bouquet of winds

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“Two Stanzas” from Reconstruction of the Poet by Zbigniew Herbert. 2024 © by the Estate of Zbigniew Herbert. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.