The Hunt

by Billy Collins

1            Somewhere in the rolling hills and farm country
2            that lie beyond speech
3            Noah Webster and his assistants are moving
4            across the landscape tracking down a new word.

5            It is a small noun about the size of a mouse,
6            one that will be seldom used by anyone,
7            like a synonym for isthmus,
8            but they are pursuing the creature zealously

9            as if it were the verb to be,
10          swinging their sticks and calling out to another
11          as they wade through a field of waist-high barley.

[from Questions about Angels]
Reproduced for personal use only: do not circulate.
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