This poem describes the poet's desire to join carolers singing outside their window, but feeling held back by academic obligations. The poet compares themselves to the "seed within the apricot" that can grow, unlike the "surface skin that darkens, sinks, and is forgotten." Restless, the poet turns back to their studies rather than risking stillness.

1. PERSONAL AND
CURRICULUM POETRY
Introduction to Literature- English 122
Erika L. LaMarch
Professor Duffy

2. Scientia Floret Virtute
The view out the loft glass is illuminated by the vivacious glow from wet-
nosed carolers
that gesturally interrupt me from my timely toil
Like trails cast by stage light beams snatching opera glasses out of focus.
Would I ever sing with them!
was I free from busying study…
Should life become a Flemish painting
wherein snowflakes stop before they fall?
Could there be detachment from my troubles
by use of swooping lines and festive colors?
But, I am the seed within the apricot,
the only part capable of growth,
and they only the surface
skin that darkens, sinks, and is forgotten.
Restless to the combustion of my atoms
for shame of stillness turns me
from my box seat to the next page of this woman’s journey.
2006

3. Comparison to Curriculum
 Emily Dickinson Ulysses
Rhyme Scheme. “I cannot rest from
 Ode to a Mockingbird, travel…
“escape troubles How dull it is to pause, to
(Keats).” make an end,
 Ode to a Grecian Urn; To rust unburnished, not
reference to art. to shine in use (Joyce
 Shakespeare's 1011).”
recurring theme of
aging.

4. Elements
Imagery Metaphor& Similie
Cold temperature Apple
Opera House Light
Beams of Light Allusion
Symbolism (Youth) Chemistry, Biology,
Wet-nosed Art, Singing
Glow Opera House
Singing Busy X-mas Season

5. ?QUESTIONS?