16. Bronzes

THEY ask me to handle bronzes

Kept by children in China

Three thousand years

Since their fathers

Took fire and molds and hammers

And made these.

The Ming, the Chou,

And other dynasties,

Out, gone, reckoned in ciphers,

Dynasties dressed up

In old gold and old yellow—

They saw these.

Let the wheels

Of three thousand years

Turn, turn, turn on.

Let one poet then

(One will be enough)

Handle these bronzes

And mention the dynasties

And pass them along.