O Taste and See

O Taste and See: New Poems (1964)

The world isnot with us enoughO taste and seethe subway Bible poster said,meaning The Lord, meaningif anything all that livesto the imagination’s tongue,grief, mercy, language,tangerine, weather, tobreathe them, bite,savor, chew, swallow, transforminto our flesh ourdeaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,living in the orchard and beinghungry, and pluckingthe fruit.

l. 2 enough: After Wordsworth’s sonnet “The world is too much with us” where he criticised materialism and proposed a return to nature and simple life.

l. 3. Cf. “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)