When the coal <br />Gave out, we began <br />Burning the books, one by one; <br />First the set <br />Of Bulwer-Lytton <br />And then the Walter Scott. <br />They gave a lot of warmth. <br />Toward the end, in <br />February, flames <br />Consumed the Greek <br />Tragedians and Baudelaire, <br />Proust, Robert Burton <br />And the Po-Chu-i. Ice <br />Thickened on the sills. <br />More for the sake of the cat, <br />We said, than for ourselves, <br />Who huddled, shivering, <br />Against the stove <br />All winter long.<br /><br />Weldon Kees<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-end-of-the-library/
