The Travelling Bear poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry

GRASS-BLADES push up between the cobblestones

And catch the sun on their flat sides

Shooting it back,

Gold and emerald,

Into the eyes of passers-by.

And over the cobblestones,

Square-footed and heavy,

Dances the trained bear.

The cobbles cut his feet,

And he has a ring in his nose

But still he dances,

For the keeper pricks him with a sharp stick,

Under his fur.

Now the crowd gapes and chuckles,

And boys and young women shuffle their feet in time to the dancing bear,

They see him wobbling

Against a dust of emerald and gold,

And they are greatly delighted.

The legs of the bear shake with fatigue

And his back aches,

And the shining grass-blades dazzle and confuse him.

But still he dances,

Because of the little, pointed stick.