SOURCE: Otis, Danielle. “Sarton's ‘Because What I Want Most Is Permanence’.” Explicator 47, no. 4 (summer 1989): 55-57.

In the following essay, Otis compares the language in“Because What I Want Most Is Permanence” to a river flowing ever deeper, “offering tranquility and continuity.”

Because what I want most is permanence, The long unwinding and continuous flow Of subterranean rivers out of sense, That nourish arid landscapes with their blue— Poetry, prayer, or call it what you choose That frees the complicated act of will And makes the whole world both intense and still— I set my mind to artful work and craft, I set my heart on friendship, hard and fast Against the wild inflaming wink of chance And all sensations opened in a glance. Oh blue Atlantis where the sailors dream Their girls under the waves and in the foam— I move another course. I'll not look down. Because...