The Broken Fountain

By Amy Lowell 1874–1925 Amy Lowell

Oblong, its jutted ends rounding into circles,

The old sunken basin lies with its flat, marble lip

An inch below the terrace tiles.

Over the stagnant water

Slide reflections:

The blue-green of coned yews;

The purple and red of trailing fuchsias

Dripping out of marble urns;

Bright squares of sky

Ribbed by the wake of a swimming beetle.

Through the blue-bronze water

Wavers the pale uncertainty of a shadow.

An arm flashes through the reflections,

A breast is outlined with leaves.

Outstretched in the quiet water

The statue of a Goddess slumbers.

But when Autumn comes

The beech leaves cover her with a golden counter-pane.

Source: Pictures of the Floating World (1919)

Biography

An oft-quoted remark attributed to poet Amy Lowell applies to both her determined personality and her sense of humor: "God made me a business woman," Lowell is reported to have quipped, "and I made myself a poet." During a career that spanned just over a dozen years, she wrote and published over 650 poems, yet scholars cite Lowell's tireless efforts to awaken American readers to contemporary trends in poetry as her more . . .

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