Parlor Poetry

 What I believe makes a good substitute for "Dover Beach":
         
          It's little I care what path i take,
          And where it leads it's little i care;
          But out of this house, lest my heart break,
          I must go, and off somewhere.

          It's little I know what's in my heart,
          What's in my mind it's little I know,
          But there's that in memust up and start,
          And it's little i care where my feet go.

          I wish i could walk for a day and a night,
          And find me at dawn in a desolate place
          With never the rut of a road in sight,
          Nor the roof of a house, nor the eyes of a face.

          I wish I could walk till my blood should spout,
          And drop me, never to stir again,
          On a shore that is wide, for the tide is out,
          And the weedy rocks are bare to the rain.

          But dump or dock, where the path I take
          Brings up, it's little enough I care:
          And it's little I'd mind the fuss they'll make,
          Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.

  - Edna St. Vincent Millay

     I think Ray Bradbury chose "Dover Beach" because it talks about a cadence that occurs with the waves. How pebbles fling and draw back. This pattern of moving forward but then starting over from the beginning could be an allusion to the myth of the phoenix. "Dover Beach" also talks about a crumbling foundation, this might just be a comparison to our civilization or what will become of our civilization. Why Mrs. Phelps began to cry? I can't say I'm sure why.
     I probably should have analyzed "Dover Beach" before selecting a poem because the one I chose is slimpy about departure. Though, I still believe the poem I chose would have also caused Mrs. Phelps to burst in tears.

     

      Read the full Dover Beach poem here