PARTISAN REVIEW
after having been put through such a crucible could socialism con–
ceivably re-emerge as a viable doctrine and plan of action.
(Translated
by
Felix Giovanelli)
Vernon Watkins
ATLAS ON GRASS
Atlas on grass, I hold tl1e moving year.
I pull the compass to a point unguessed.
Vast midnight flies to morning in the breast,
All moves to movement, moves and makes a sphere.
Rough Winter loosens leaves long-veined with fear,
Then the seed moves to its unsleeping rest.
Faith springs where beads of longing lie confessed.
Time lost is found; the salmon leaps the weir.
Death stops the mouths of graves,
is
coverer
Shrouding and hiding what the pulse reveals,
But he, too, moves to
his
Deliverer;
Judgment
will
never stop the dancer's heels.
What's gone forever
is
forever here,
And men are raised by what a myth conceals.
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