Skip to content
Linespedia

Campus Sonnets: 2. Talk

Topics: classic

Tobacco smoke drifts up to the dim ceiling     From half a dozen pipes and cigarettes,     Curling in endless shapes, in blue rings wheeling,     As formless as our talk. Phil, drawling, bets     Cornell will win the relay in a walk,     While Bob and Mac discuss the Giants' chances;     Deep in a morris-chair, Bill scowls at "Falk",     John gives large views about the last few dances.     And so it goes -- an idle speech and aimless,     A few chance phrases; yet I see behind     The empty words the gleam of a beauty tameless,     Friendship and peace and fire to strike men blind,     Till the whole world seems small and bright to hold --     Of all our youth this hour is pure gold.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Tobacco smoke drifts up to the dim ceiling..."

Stephen Vincent Benet's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Campus Sonnets: 2. Talk"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk,     The tiresome noises, all the common things     I loved once, crushed me with an iron yoke.     I"

"It was not when temptation came,     Swiftly and blastingly as flame,     And seared me white with burning scars;     When I stood up for age-l"

"The last pose flickered, failed. The screen's dead white     Glared in a sudden flooding of harsh light     Stabbing the eyes; and as I stumbled"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Well, I was tired of life; the silly folk,     The..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.