Poem of the Week

Egg by Linda Pastan is an epitome of figurative language and symbolism.

Egg

         BY LINDA PASTAN

In this kingdom 

the sun never sets; 

under the pale oval 

of the sky 

there seems no way in 

or out, 

and though there is a sea here 

there is no tide.

For the egg itself 

is a moon 

glowing faintly 

in the galaxy of the barn, 

safe but for the spoon's 

ominous thunder, 

the first delicate crack 

of lightning.

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Bio: Poet Linda Pastan was raised in New York City but has lived for most of her life in Potomac, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC. In her senior year at Radcliffe College, Pastan won the Mademoiselle poetry prize (Sylvia Plath was the runner-up). Immediately following graduation, however, she decided to give up writing poetry in order to concentrate on raising her family. After ten years at home, her husband urged her to return to poetry. Since the early 1970s, Pastan has produced quiet lyrics that focus on themes like marriage, parenting, and grief. She is interested in the anxieties that exist under the surface of everyday life. She died recently in February 2023.