En.Citatepedia^®.ro

Forgotten Dead, I Salute You

Dawn has flashed up the startled skies,
Night has gone out beneath the hill
Many sweet times; before our eyes
Dawn makes and unmakes about us still
The magic that we call the rose.
The gentle history of the rain
Has been unfolded, traced and lost
By the sharp finger-tips of frost;
Birds in the hawthorn build again;
The hare makes soft her secret house;
The wind at tourney comes and goes,
Spurring the green, unharnessed boughs;
The moon has waxed fierce and waned dim:
He knew the beauty of all those
Last year, and who remembers him?

Love sometimes walks the waters still,
Laughter throws back her radiant head;
Utterly beauty is not gone,
And wonder is not wholly dead.
The starry, mortal world rolls on;
Between sweet sounds and silences,
With new, strange wines her beakers brim:
He lost his heritage with these
Last year, and who remembers him?

None remember him: he lies
In earth of some strange-sounding place,
Nameless beneath the nameless skies,
The wind his only chant, the rain
The only tears upon his face;
Far and forgotten utterly
By living man. Yet such as he
Have made it possible and sure
For other lives to have, to be;
For men to sleep content, secure.
Lip touches lip and eyes meet eyes
Because his heart beats not again:
His rotting, fruitless body lies
That sons may grow from other men.

He gave, as Christ, the life he hadÑ
The only life desired or known;
The great, sad sacrifice was made
For strangers; this forgotten dead
Went out into the night alone.
There was his body broken for you,
There was his blood divinely shed
That in the earth lie lost and dim.
Eat, drink, and often as you do,
For whom he died, remember him.

poem by Muriel Stuart
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Spring

Wake up again, sad heart, wake up again !
(I heard the birds this morning singing sweet.)
Wake up again ! The sky was crystal clear,
And washed quite clean with rain ;
And tar below my heart stirred with the year,
Stirred with the year and sighed. O pallid feet
Move now at last, O heart that sleeps with pain
Rise up and hear
The voices in the valleys, run to meet
The songs and shadows. O wake up again !

Put out green leaves, dead tree, put out green leaves t
(Last night the moon was soft and kissed the air.)
Put out green leaves ! The moon was in the skies,
All night she wakes and weaves.
The dew was on the grass like fairies' eyes,
Like fairies' eyes. O trees so black and bare,
Remember all the fruits, the full gold sheaves;
For nothing dies,
The songs that are, are silences that were,
Summer was Winter. O put but green leaves!

Break through the earth, pale flower, break through the earth !
(All day the lark has sung a madrigal.)
Break through the earth that lies not lightly yet
And waits thy patient birth,
Waits for the jonquil and the violet,
The violet. Full soon the heavy pall
Will be a bed, and in the noon of mirth
Some rivulet
Will bubble in my wilderness, some call
Will touch my silence. O break through the earth.

poem by Lord Alfred Douglas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

One

We are the lost
The ones forgotten
And this time
The future is our's
It's in our hands
We're the tear in your eyes
We're the blood in your vains
We're the beat of your heart
We're the sweat on your face
We're the ones that you chase
We're the promise that you made
We're the voice in your head
We're the lies that you said
We're the kids that you pushed away
We are
We are the the lost
The ones forgotten
And this time
The future is our's
It's in our hands
We are one
We're the pride of your lives
We're the light shining deep in your eyes
We're the choice that you made
We're the smile on your face
When you sleep at night
We're the best thing you had
But you left us behind
We're the kids that you pushed away
We are
We are the the lost
The ones forgotten
And this time
The future is our's
It's in our hands
We are one
One
We're the pain that you feel
We're the scars that don't heal
We're the tear in your eyes
We're the reason you cry
We're the voice in your head
We're the lies that you said
We're the best thing you had
But you pushed us away
We are the lost
The ones forgotten
And this time
The future is our's
It's in our hands
We are
We are the lost
The ones forgotten
And we've got nothing to lose
Together we stand up tall
We are one

song performed by by Simple Plan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!

The Spaniards' Graves

O sailors, did sweet eyes look after you
The day you sailed away from sunny Spain?
Bright eyes that followed fading ship and crew,
Melting in tender rain?

Did no one dream of that drear night to be,
Wild with the wind, fierce with the stinging snow,
When on yon granite point that frets the sea,
The ship met her death-blow?

Fifty long years ago these sailors died:
(None know how many sleep beneath the waves)
Fourteen gray headstones, rising side by side,
Point out their nameless graves,-

Lonely, unknown, deserted, but for me,
And the wild birds that flit with mournful cry,
And sadder winds, and voices of the sea
That moans perpetually.

Wives, mothers, maidens, wistfully, in vain
Questioned the distance for the yearning sail,
That leaning landward, should have stretched again
White arms wide on the gale,

To bring back their beloved. Year by year,
Weary they watched, till youth and beauty passed,
And lustrous eyes grew dim and age drew near,
And hope was dead at last.

Still summer broods o'er that delicious land,
Rich, fragrant, warm with skies of golden glow:
Live any yet of that forsaken band
Who loved so long ago?

Spanish women, over the far seas,
Could I but show you where your dead repose!
Could I send tidings on this northern breeze
That strong and steady blows!

Dear dark-eyed sisters, you remember yet
These you have lost, but you can never know
One stands at their bleak graves whose eyes are wet
With thinking of your woe!

poem by Celia Thaxter
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

To One in Allienation

I
Last night I saw you decked to meet
The coming of those most reluctant feet:
The little bonnet that you wear
When you would fain, for his sake, be more fair;
The primrose ribbons that so grace
The perfect pallor of your face;
The dark gown folded back about the throat,
And folds of lacework that denote
All that beneath them, just beneath them, lies:
God, for his eyes!

So the man came and took you; and we lay
So near and yet so far away,
You in his arms, awake for joy, and I
Awake for very misery,
Cursing a sleepless brain that would but scrawl
Your image on the aching wall,
That would but pang me with the sense
Of that most sweet accursed violence
Of lovers' hands that weary to caress
(Those hands!) your unforbidden loveliness.

And with the dawn that vision came again
To an unrested and recurrent brain:
To think your body, warm and white,
Lay in his arms all night;
That it was given him to surprise,
With those unhallowed eyes,
The secrets of your beauty, hid from me,
That I may never (may I never?) see:
I who adore you, he who finds in you
(Poor child!) a half-forgotten point of view.
II
As I lay on the stranger's bed,
And clasped the stranger-woman I had hired,
Desiring only memory dead
Of all that I had once desired;

It was then that I wholly knew
How dearly I had loved you, my lost friend;
While I am I, and you are you,
How I must love you to the end.

For I lay in her arms awake,
Awake and cursing the indifferent night,
That ebbed so slowly, for your sake,
My heart's desire, my soul's delight;

For I lay in her arms awake,
Awake in such a solitude of shame,
That when I kissed her, for your sake,
My lips were sobbing on your name.

poem by Arthur Symons
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Spring.

'Let the light rain on her, the sweet Spring, till
She teems with greenery in the warm air,
Flower-hued, and vocal with the tender joy
Of bleating lambs and young birds on the wing.'
Thus on the cold hill doth the herdsman pray
Beneath his frozen star; the milkmaid, too,
As her raw hands take up the milking-pail,
And the wind freezes in the red dawn near: —
'Come, Spring, earth's sap, and mount in me until
I bloom, a rose of love: smile in mine eyes
Till my love from his wintry hill shall see
The star of youth, and leap into my arms!
O Spring, sweet Spring! but hear my prayer, and I
Shall build thee bowers of roses on the hill,
And all the summer there with bird and bee
Shall joy feast in the beauty of our love!'
Thus do they chant the wintry time away
In hill and vale, the two who look to when
The warmth of beauty takes life's wonder on,
And the rose of the flesh shall bloom for them.

poem by Robert Crawford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

The Memory of Water (for Scarlet)

Water remembers you
falling now on your sleeping face

waking you from dreams
with its surprise

after you fell asleep
at your first pinic.

Water remembers your childish
laughter.

Water remembers you

holding your body
in its body

as you learn not to fear it
as you learn the words float...sink...swim.

Water remembers you
becoming its friend.

Water remembers you
diving into its honeymoon waters

becoming fishes....kisses
lasting from here to eternity.

Water remembers two
delerious skinnydippers.

Water remembers you
crying in its rain

sobbing 'I'll never fall in love again! '
as if you were an old 1950's tune.

Water remembers such tears
hiding them in its rain.

Water remembers you
laughing in the rain

having fallen in love again

so quick to change
your tune.

Water remembers you
laughing here we go again.

Water remembers you
soaking wet in a sudden thunder storm

flowers held in your hand
having lost their heads

presenting her
with nothing but stalks.

Water remembers you
having to wear her old dress

as she dried your clothes.

Water remembers
kisses lost amonst the roar of a fire.

Water remembers you
& is saddened to find you

with no answers
with no questions

here on this bridge
reflecting itself

here in its depths
where only silence lives

holding you
as before

only water
remembers your death.

poem by Dónall Dempsey
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

The Mother's Prayer

This was my little son
Who leapt and laughed on my knee:
Body we made with love,
Soul made with love by Thee.
This was the mystery
In which I worshipped Thy grace;
This was the sign to me -
The unveiling of Thy face . . .
This, that lies under Thy skies
Naked as on that day
When the floor of heaven gave way
And the glory of God shone through,
When the world was made new
And Thy word was made flesh for me . . .
He lies there, bare to Thy skies,
O Lord God, see!

Body that was in mine
A secret, sacred spell,
Little hands I have kissed
Trampled by beasts in Hell . . .
Growing beauty and grace . . .
Oh, head that lay on my bosom . . .
Broken, battered, shattered . . .
Body that grew like a blossom!
All that was promised me
On my life's royal day.
Every promise broken -
Only a ghost, and clay!

O God, I kneel at Thy feet;
I lay my hands in Thine:
Thou gavest Thy Son for the world,
And shall I not give mine?
Only--O God, have pity!
All my defences are down:
God, I accept the Cross,
Let HIM have the Crown!

By all that my love has borne,
By all that all mothers bear,
By the infinite patient anguish,
By the never-ceasing prayer,
By the thoughts that cut like a living knife,
By the tears that are never dry,
Take what he died to win You -
God, take Your victory!

We have watched on till the light burned low,
And watched the dawn awake;
We have lived hardly and hardly fared
For our sons' sake.
All that was good in Thy earth,
All that taught us of Heaven,
All that we had in the world
We have given.
We pray with empty hands
And hearts that are stiff with pain.
O God! O God! O God!
Let the sacrifice not be vain.
This is his blood, Lord, see!
His blood that was shed for Thee;
Thy banner is dyed in that red tide
Lord, take Thy victory!

God! give Thine angels power
To fight as he fought,
To scatter the hosts of evil,
To bring their boastings to naught -
Gabriel with trumpet of battle . . .
Michael, who wields Thy sword . . .
Breathe Thou Thy spirit upon them,
Put forth Thy strength, O Lord.
See, Lord, this is his body,
Broken for Thee, for Thee . . .
My son, my little son,
Who leapt and laughed on my knee.

poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Your Eyes

The night sky is not a place,
Where I could lost while watching.
That time I would only remember ur face,
But still moons n stars try attracting

I wonder why they are so beautiful!
I could watch them for hour's n hours,
Those two eyes of yours and I give
Damn to those moon n stars.

Stars are millions n your eyes are two
But your eyes are the one to win.
Dear, It's the same mistake they always do
Every night, come to sky n compare with you

Or maybe that's not what they are doing,
They must have known you would be sleeping
In night, so they are taking their chance
Being happy, twinkling in sky and doing dance.

Many would fall in the beauty of the stars
Watching them from roofs, window, street and
Stopping bike and looking through the window of cars
Lost in its beauty and never ending night that's what they demand.

But sorry dear, I also look to the sky.
Laugh at them because I know they are shy
I don't want to see its beauty,
I have a thing to do and I call it my duty.

I ask them not to come to sky ever again
Remember this or else u (stars) would be in a great pain.
I wish if I could destroy then all,
Blast them in pieces with the strongest cannon ball.

Let's leave this and them in their own world.
I know your eyes are too beautiful.
So let me see your eyes until the day is over
I want to lost in its deepness for forever.

Don't try to hide those from me
They are to beautiful so let me see,
Or don't block with your hands or move your head
If I don't see it, still I would be breathing but a man like dead.

So please don't stop me dear,
I can't see it every day,
I am happy, smiling, inside I am dancing
It's all because u came to meet me today…
End

poem by Sushanta Rokka
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Mine Forever

Body and mind, trapped in a cage,
Heart and soul, filled with rage,
Losing control,
Breaking down,
Giving up,
Eyes blinded,
Filled with tears,
Loss of sight,
My heart slashed open,
With an axe,
Broken,
Bleeding through the cracks,
Feelings flying on a kite,
String cut, lost in flight,
But just as I was about to give in,
An angle showed me the light,
A girl That I dream of at night,
She breathed, breath, back into my body,
Made my heart beat once again,
Warmth filled every vein,
Felt like dancing in the rain,
Her beauty could not compare,
She loves me, and I'm aware,
I love her, and she knows I care,
Her soft sweet voice gives me butterflies,
Between me and her, there are no lies,
Her cute little smile makes my day,
When I look into her beautiful eyes,
I just don't know what to say,
She will always be
My baby,
My sweet heart,
My cuddle buddy,
My cutie pie,
My one,
My only,
My guardian,
My angle,
Through thick and thin,
Good and bad,
I'll never let go,
I'll never leave,
No matter what,
Forever and ever,
She'll always be mine,
Forever and always.

poem by Jacob Gifford
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

December’s Cry

Gone are the sorrows lies for a greater tomorrow
Sunny skies shine no more for dim are the lights for a greater day.
Cry not those wasted tears of sorrow today
The dawn rises on no more cloudy skies
Cry not old sacred willow tree
Lost is now the child gone to the sea
Radiant is the air that surrounds you now
Lifting your spirits to calmer shores light takes you away

Looking back on times we spent of great moments by
Thinking not of sadness but of the times shared
Caring and sharing the laughter of yesterday
No more sweet melodies utterance to my solitude
Weeping on what could have been not thinking of what it was
We crave for your presents now denied
Hopeful wishes fallen on deafen ears desires

Quite the storm brewing genteelly into the night
Faded the luminescent dims in the darkness looms it eerie shadow
Passing through and touching our so call reality
Laying a hand on our souls passing by and by
Perilous the journey we all must travel home

Cry for yesterday, cry for today, and cry for tomorrow as well
Cry if you must and cry if you want to
Shed your tears for what could have been
The dawn will still arrive tomorrow to shine once again

Transience we are in this realm of servitude
Our heart keeps love ones close
Promises not tomorrow can guarantee be
Gone we are not unless forgotten
Go forth for we all shall one day meet
Glorious the day of our reconciliation
They will shine as long as they are remember by the ones left behind
To the same place our destination leads
God’s speed be with you

poem by Wilfred Mellers
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Thèlus Wood

I came by night to Thèlus wood,
And though in dark and desperate places
Stubborned with wire and brown with blood
Undaunted April crept and sewed
Her violets in dead men's faces,
And in a soft and snowy shroud
Drew the scarred fields with gentle stitch;
Though in the valley where the ditch
Was hoarse with nettles, blind with mud,
She stroked the golden-headed bud,
And loosed the fern, she dared not here
To touch nor tend this murdered thing;
The wind went wide of it, the year
Upon this breast stopped short of Spring:
Beauty turned back from Thèlus Wood.

From broken brows the dim eyes stared,
Blistered and maimed the wide stumps grinned
From the black mouth of Thèlus bared
In laughter at some monstrous jest.
No creature moved there, weed nor wind.
Huge arms, half-torn from savage breast,
Hung wide, and tangled limbs and faces
Lay, as if giants blind and stark
With violent, with perverse embraces
Groped for each other in the dark.
A moaning rose — not of the wind,
— There was no wind, but hollowly
From its dim bed of mud each tree
Gave forth a sound, till trees and mud
Seemed but a single, sighing mouth,
A wound that spoke with lips uncouth,
And cried to me from Thèlus Wood.

I heard one tree say: 'This was I
Who drew great clouds across the sky
To weep against me.' This one said:
'I made a gloom where love might lie
All day and dream it night, a bed
Secret and soft, the birds' song had
A twilight sound the whole day there.'
One said: 'Last night I shook my hair
Before the mirror of the moon.'
'I saw a corpse to-day,' said one
'That was but buried yester-year.'
And one, the smallest, sweetest thing —
A fair child-tree made never stir,
Dead before God had tended her
In the green nurseries of Spring.
She lay, the loveliest, loneliest,
Among the old and ruined trees,
And at each small and broken wrist
The white flowers grew like bandages.

Then from the ruined churchyard where
Old vaults and graves lay turned and tossed
And earth from earth was shaken bare,
Came murmurings of a tongueless host
That to each ghastly brother said:
'Who raised us from our sleep? Is this
The resurrection of the dead?
Upon our bodies no flesh grows,
No bright blood through our temples springs,
No glory spreads, no trumpet blows,
The air is not white and blind with wings.
And yet dragged up before us lie
The woods of Thèlus at our feet,
And strange hills sentinel the sky,
And where the road went yawns a pit.
The world is finished: let us sleep.
God has forgotten: we shall keep
Here a sweet, safe Eternity.
There is no other end than this,
And this is death, and that is peace.'
But even as they ceased the stones
Were loosed, the earth shook where I stood,
And from far off the crouching guns
Swung slowly round on Thèlus Wood.

poem by Muriel Stuart
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

I Rember The Day Before I Was Born

BEFORE:

(September 16,1982)

I remember the day before I was born...

The sand castles and azure skies,
I watched with wide impatient eyes.
I yearned to lie in seaside grass,
Blue-green days where lovers pass.
Envying waves that touched the shore,
I wanted all the LIFE in store...
Palmettos swayed and seagulls praised the morn.
I remember the day before I was born!
I was one with rain and waterfall,
With canyon echoes and redwoods tall,
The moon and sun in celebration...
September birds in V formation.
Gazing upon the Earth below...
So much to feel, so much to know.
Between Earth and Heaven, untouched, unworn,
I remember the day before I was born!

AFTER:

(April 30,2008)

I remember the day just after I died...

A river-town with nectarine skies,
I watched with tired but patient eyes.
Relieved, at last, to shed my bones,
As new colors replaced earth-tones,
Flesh it was a familiar bond,
And yet I craved this world beyond.
Endless space is as black as it is wide!
I remember the day just after I died!
The wind and rain, the graveside mass,
Dirty headstones and yellow grass,
The moon and sun in hesitation,
I rose to join a V formation...
Gazing upon the Earth below...
So much was felt, the fear and woe,
From Purgatory I heard as he said...
'A gun in the mouth paints the bathroom red! ...
Damn you and your pain, Damn me and my pride! '
I remember the day just after I died!

poem by ToddMichael St. Pierre
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Hast Thou Forgotten Me?

HAST thou forgotten me? the days are dark—
Light ebbs from heaven, and songless soars the lark—
Vexed like my heart, loud moans the unquiet sea—
Hast thou forgotten me?

Hast thou forgotten me? O dead delight
Whose dreams and memories torture me to-night—
O love—my life! O sweet—so fair to see—
Hast thou forgotten me?

Hast thou forgotten? Lo, if one should say—
Noontide were night, or night were flaming day—
Grief blinds mine eyes, I know not which it be!
Hast thou forgotten me?

Hast thou forgotten? Ah, if Death should come,
Close my sad eyes, and charm my song-bird dumb—
Tired of strange woes—my fate were hailed with glee—
Hast thou forgotten me?

Hast thou forgotten me? What joy have I?
A dim blown bird beneath an alien sky,—
O that on mighty pinions I could flee—
Hast thou forgotten me?

Hast thou forgotten? Yea, Love’s horoscope
Is blurred with tears and suffering beyond Hope—
Ah, like dead leaves forsaken of the tree,
Thou hast forgotten me.

poem by Philip Joseph Holdsworth
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Dead Boys Poem

The child sits and weeps,
How could this be all that matters,
Why did this have to hurt so deep,
How could this be life?

The child sits with the pain inside,
He sits with his heart in his chest,
‘How could I have died? ’
Is all he thinks, he forgets the rest.

The child’s eyes closed so tight,
His fists clenched so strong
He feels the night,
He knows everything that happened was wrong.

The child stands and looks into the houses light
He stares at not the window,
Not at the sight,
Yet only for the weeping widow.

The child stands holding the gun,
The gun he died holding,
As he remembers his father killing him, his only son
He remembers his father scolding.

He knows he took a life,
Yet he knows his father took his,
He remembers not the taking of his father’s life,
Only the pain of his father stealing his.

His eyes so dark,
His mind so lost,
His hand tracing deaths mark,
As he remembers it’s cost.

He remembers the scene, the time,
He remembers the look in his father’s face,
He remembers doing the crime,
He remembers seeing the pain in his father’s face.

But then his memory stops,
And reality takes place,
For this is when he dropped,
This is when life left his face.

He walks past,
To eternity; to roam
Of all his memories this shall be his last
For this is the dead boy’s poem.

poem by Bethany Maxwell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Hermaphroditus

I.
LIFT UP thy lips, turn round, look back for love,
Blind love that comes by night and casts out rest;
Of all things tired thy lips look weariest,
Save the long smile that they are wearied of.
Ah sweet, albeit no love be sweet enough,
Choose of two loves and cleave unto the best;
Two loves at either blossom of thy breast
Strive until one be under and one above.
Their breath is fire upon the amorous air,
Fire in thine eyes and where thy lips suspire:
And whosoever hath seen thee, being so fair,
Two things turn all his life and blood to fire;
A strong desire begot on great despair,
A great despair cast out by strong desire.

II.
Where between sleep and life some brief space is,
With love like gold bound round about the head,
Sex to sweet sex with lips and limbs is wed,
Turning the fruitful feud of hers and his
To the waste wedlock of a sterile kiss;
Yet from them something like as fire is shed
That shall not be assuaged till death be dead,
Though neither life nor sleep can find out this.
Love made himself of flesh that perisheth
A pleasure-house for all the loves his kin;
But on the one side sat a man like death,
And on the other a woman sat like sin.
So with veiled eyes and sobs between his breath
Love turned himself and would not enter in.

III.
Love, is it love or sleep or shadow or light
That lies between thine eyelids and thine eyes?
Like a flower laid upon a flower it lies,
Or like the night’s dew laid upon the night.
Love stands upon thy left hand and thy right,
Yet by no sunset and by no moonrise
Shall make thee man and ease a woman’s sighs,
Or make thee woman for a man’s delight.
To what strange end hath some strange god made fair
The double blossom of two fruitless flowers?
Hid love in all the folds of all thy hair,
Fed thee on summers, watered thee with showers,
Given all the gold that all the seasons wear
To thee that art a thing of barren hours?

IV.
Yea, love, I see; it is not love but fear.
Nay, sweet, it is not fear but love, I know;
Or wherefore should thy body’s blossom blow
So sweetly, or thine eyelids leave so clear
Thy gracious eyes that never made a tear—
Though for their love our tears like blood should flow,
Though love and life and death should come and go,
So dreadful, so desirable, so dear?
Yea, sweet, I know; I saw in what swift wise
Beneath the woman’s and the water’s kiss
Thy moist limbs melted into Salmacis,
And the large light turned tender in thine eyes,
And all thy boy’s breath softened into sighs;
But Love being blind, how should he know of this?

Au Musée du Louvre, Mars 1863.

poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

An Interlude

IN the greenest growth of the Maytime,
I rode where the woods were wet,
Between the dawn and the daytime;
The spring was glad that we met.

There was something the season wanted,
Though the ways and the woods smelt sweet;
The breath at your lips that panted,
The pulse of the grass at your feet.

You came, and the sun came after,
And the green grew golden above;
And the flag-flowers lightened with laughter,
And the meadow-sweet shook with love.

Your feet in the full-grown grasses
Moved soft as a weak wind blows;
You passed me as April passes,
With face made out of a rose.

By the stream where the stems were slender,
Your bright foot paused at the sedge;
It might be to watch the tender
Light leaves in the springtime hedge,

On boughs that the sweet month blanches
With flowery frost of May:
It might be a bird in the branches,
It might be a thorn in the way.

I waited to watch you linger
With foot drawn back from the dew,
Till a sunbeam straight like a finger
Struck sharp through the leaves at you.

And a bird overhead sang Follow,
And a bird to the right sang Here;
And the arch of the leaves was hollow,
And the meaning of May was clear.

I saw where the sun’s hand pointed,
I knew what the bird’s note said;
By the dawn and the dewfall anointed,
You were queen by the gold on your head.

As the glimpse of a burnt-out ember
Recalls a regret of the sun,
I remember, forget, and remember
What Love saw done and undone.

I remember the way we parted,
The day and the way we met;
You hoped we were both broken-hearted,
And knew we should both forget.

And May with her world in flower
Seemed still to murmur and smile
As you murmured and smiled for an hour;
I saw you turn at the stile.

A hand like a white wood-blossom
You lifted, and waved, and passed,
With head hung down to the bosom,
And pale, as it seemed, at last.

And the best and the worst of this is
That neither is most to blame
If you’ve forgotten my kisses
And I’ve forgotten your name.

poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

The Dead To The Living

Work while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

IN the childhood of April, while purple woods
With the young year's blood in them smiled,
I passed through the lanes and the wakened fields,
And stood by the grave of the child.
And the pain awoke that is never dead
Though it sometimes sleeps, and again
It set its teeth in this heart of mine,
And fastened its claws in my brain:
For it seemed so hard that the little hands
And the little well-loved head
Should be out of reach of my living lips,
And be side by side with the dead--
Not side by side with us who had loved,
But with these who had never seen
The grace of the smile, the gold of the hair,
And the eyes of my baby-queen.
Yet with trees about where the brown birds build,
And with long green grass above,

She lies in the cold sweet breast of earth
Beyond the reach of our love;
Whatever befalls in the coarse loud world,
We know she will never wake.
When I thought of the sorrow she might have known,
I was almost glad for her sake. . . .
Tears might have tired those kiss-closed eyes,
Grief hardened the mouth I kissed;
I was almost glad that my dear was dead
Because of the pain she had missed.
Oh, if I could but have died a child
With a white child-soul like hers,
As pure as the wind-flowers down in the copse,
Where the soul of the spring's self stirs;
Or if I had only done with it all,
And might lie by her side unmoved!
I envied the very clods of earth
Their place near the child I loved!

And my soul rose up in revolt at life,
As I stood dry-eyed by her grave,
When sudden the grass of the churchyard sod
Rolled back like a green smooth wave;
The brown earth looked like the brown sea rocks,
The tombstones were white like spray,
And white like surf were the curling folds
Of the shrouds where the dead men lay;
For each in his place with his quiet face
I saw the dead lie low,
Who had worked and suffered and found life sad,
So many sad years ago.
Unchanged by time I saw them lie
As when first they were laid to rest,
The tired eyes closed, the sad lips still,
And the work-worn hands on the breast.
There were some who had found the green world so grey,
They had left it before their time,
And some were little ones like my dear,
And some had died in their prime;
And some were old, they had had their fill
Of bitter unfruitful hours,
And knew that none of them, none, had known
A flower of a hope like ours!

Through their shut eyelids the dead looked up,
And without a voice they said:
'We lived without hope, without hope we died,
And hopeless we lie here dead;
And death is better than life that draws
Pain in, as it draws in breath,
If life never dreams of a coming day
When life shall not envy death.
Through the dark of our hours and our times we lived,
Uncheered by a single ray
Of such hope as lightens the lives of you
Who are finding life hard to-day;
With our little lanterns of human love
We lighted our dark warm night--
But you in the chill of the dawn are set
With your face to the eastern light.
Freedom is waiting with hands held out
Till you tear the veil from her face--
And when once men have seen the light of her eyes,
And felt her divine embrace,
The light of the world will be risen indeed,
And will shine in the eyes of men,
And those who come after will find life fair,
And their lives worth living then!
Will you strive to the light in your loud rough world,
That these things may come to pass,
Or lie in the shadow beside the child,
And strive to the sun through the grass?'

'My world while I may,' I cried; 'but you
Whose lives were as dark as your grave?'
'We too are a part of the coming light,'
They called through the smooth green wave.
Their white shrouds gleamed as the flood of green
Rolled over and hid them from me--
Hid all but the little hands and the hair,
And the face that I always see.

poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

What Magic

what magic lies in his eyes
the spendor of love conceived in one night
suddenly hopefull of what tommorow brings
i wonder why such beauty has yet to recgonized
to see in his eyes love for someone so shy
to see in his eyes the glow that i sit and wonder
how such a person landed here
in my arms in my life
i have to ask
what magic lies in his eyes
to make me forget all the wrong
all the evil that has been done to me
to just to be happy with such beauty
such strength in these hands he hold me with
what magic corses through his body into mines
what magic is this that makes me and him one within

poem by Sunitria Couser
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Song VII: Dawn Talks to Day

Dawn talks to Day
Over dew-gleaming flowers,
Night flies away
Till the resting of hours:
Fresh are thy feet
And with dreams thine eyes glistening,
Thy still lips are sweet
Though the world is a-listening.
O Love, set a word in my mouth for our meeting,
Cast thine arms round about me to stay my heart's beating!
O fresh day, O fair day, O long day made ours!

Morn shall meet noon
While the flower-stems yet move,
Though the wind dieth soon
And the clouds fade above.
Loved lips are thine
As I tremble and hearken;
Bright thine eyes shine,
Though the leaves thy brow darken.
O Love, kiss me into silence, lest no word avail me,
Stay my head with thy bosom lest breath and life fail me!
O sweet day, O rich day, made long for our love!

Late day shall greet eve,
And the full blossoms shake,
For the wind will not leave
The tall trees while they wake.
Eyes soft with bliss,
Come nigher and nigher!
Sweet mouth I kiss,
Tell me all thy desire!
Let us speak, love, together some words of our story,
That our lips as they part may remember the glory!
O soft day, O calm day, made clear for our sake!

Eve shall kiss night,
And the leaves stir like rain
As the wind stealeth light
O'er the grass of the plain.
Unseen are thine eyes
Mid the dreamy night's sleeping,
And on my mouth there lies
The dear rain of thy weeping.
Hold silence, love, speak not of the sweet day departed,
Cling close to me, love, lest I waken sad-hearted!
O kind day, O dear day, short day, come again!

poem by William Morris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Once

I SET a lily long ago;
I watched it whiten in the sun;
I loved it well, I had but one.
Then summer-time was done,
The wind came and the rain,
My lily bent, lay low.
Only the night-time sees my pain—
Alas, my lily long ago!

I had a rose-tree born in May;
I watched it burgeon and grow red,
I breathed the perfume that it shed.
Then summer-time had sped,
The frost came with its sleep
My rose-tree died away.
Only the silence hears me weep—
Alas, lost rose-tree! lost, lost May!

The garden's lily blows once more;
The buried rose will wake and climb;
There is no thought of rain and rime
After, next summer-time.
But the heart's blooms are weak;
Once dead for ever o'er.
Not night, not silence knows me seek
My joy that waned and blooms no more.

poem by Augusta Davies Webster
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!