Poem for July: Outwitted

Outwitted

Edwin Markham


He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But Love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in!

The poetry project mistress almost missed a month of poetry memorization. June’s selection took a very long time to learn and I hadn’t chosen anything for July and here it was July fifth. Then July tenth. Then the fifteenth. Then the twentieth. Would I miss memorizing a poem for the first time since May 2009?


Enter the short poem that I had almost completely memorized anyway. I’ve mentioned this poem before on the blog, Edwin Markham was a former Poet Laureate of Oregon. And this poem was in some anthology I had for some Junior High or High School English class. So now it is officially learned and the Poetry project carries on.


Because I have three weeks off in August and because it is very difficult for me to memorize poems when I am not walking to the train or riding my bike to work every day, I will have another very short poem for August.


Also in August I hope to have a post about how I keep all these poems fresh in my memory.

One thought on “Poem for July: Outwitted”

  1. I really like this poem. I am impressed with this project. I didn't really pay attention to the fact that it has been going since 2009! Even more impressive!

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