Susan Stewart Poems

The Forest

by Susan Stewart

‘The Forest’ by Susan Stewart is a complex, cyclical poem about how memories can give new life to things that no longer exist.

This is one of Susan Stewart's most celebrated and best-known poems. 'The Forest' mostly gets acclaim for its density, compressed language, and original structure. However, critical all note how difficult it can be to extract the core meaning of this poem with just one reading. For that reason, it's a challenging yet rewarding poem.

You should lie down now and remember the forest, 

for it is disappearing--

no, the truth is it is gone now 

and so what details you can bring back 

might have a kind of life.

Explore more poems from Susan Stewart

Yellow Stars and Ice

by Susan Stewart

‘Yellow Stars and Ice’ captures the unattainable nature of memory, even when it feels tantalizingly close at hand.

I am as far as the deepest sky between clouds

and you are as far as the deepest root and wound,

and I am as far as a train at evening,

as far as a whistle you can't hear or remember.  

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