WEBVTT

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I'll read a few earlier poems.

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This one is called
"The Cows at Night."

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"The moon was like a full
cup tonight, too heavy,

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and sank in the mist
soon after dark,

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leaving for light faint
stars and the silver leaves

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of milkweed beside the road,
gleaming before my car.

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Yet I like driving at night
in summer and in Vermont.

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The brown road through
the mist of mountain dark,

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among farms so quiet
and the roadside

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willows opening out
where I saw the cows.

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Always a shock to
remember them there,

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those great breathings
close in the dark.

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I stopped and took my
flashlight to the pasture fence.

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They turned to me
where they lay,

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sad and beautiful faces in
the dark, and I counted them.

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40 near and far in the pasture.

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Turning to me, sad and
beautiful like girls

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very long ago who
were innocent and sad

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because they were innocent,
and beautiful because they

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were sad.

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I switched off my light.

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I did not want to
go, not yet, nor knew

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what to do if I should stay.

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For how in that great darkness
could I explain anything?

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Anything at all?

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I stood by the fence and then
very gently it began to rain."

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