(10) THE SWAN

 

1 (a) I study out a dark similitude: Her image fades, yet does not disappear — Must I stay tangled in that lucky hair? Is there no way out of that coursing blood? A dry soul’s wisest. O, I am not dry! My darling does what I could never do: She sighs me white, a socrates of snow.

(b) We think too long in terms of what to be; I live, alive and certain as a bull; A casual man, I keep my casual word.

2 (a) She turns, as if to go, Half-bird, half-animal. The wind dies on the hill. Love’s all. Love is all I know.

3 (a) A doe drinks by a stream, A doe and its fawn. When I follow after them, The grass changes to stone.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(4) NIGHTFALL

  ​ (a) We will never walk again As we used to walk at night, Watching our shadows lengthen Under the gold street-light When the snow was new and white. ​ (b) We will never walk again Slowly, we too, In spring, when the park is sweet With midnight and with dew, And the passers-by are few. ​ (c) I sit and think of it all, Out in the twilight dim, — A street-piano cries And stars come out in the skies. ​(5) IT IS NOT A WORD ​ (a) It is not a word spoken, Few words are said; Not even a look of the eyes, Nor a bend of the head. ​But only a hush of the heart That has too much to keep, Only memories waking That sleep so light a sleep. ​(6) MY HEART IS HEAVY ​ (a) My heart is heavy with many a song Like ripe fruit bearing down the tree, But I can never give you one — My songs do not belong to me. ​ (b) Yet in the evening, in the dusk When moths go to and fro, In the gray hour if the fruit has fallen, Take it, no one will know. ​(7) THE NIGHTS REMEMBE...
Read more

1. SLOW SEASON

  (a) The ravages of wind and rain are healed. The haze of harvest drifts along the field Until clear eyes put on the look of sleep. (b) The garden spider weaves a silken pear To keep inclement weather from its young. Straight from the oak, the gossamer is hung. At dusk our slow breath thickens on the air. (c) Lost hues of birds the trees take as their own. Long since, bronze wheat was gathered into sheaves. The walker trudges ankle-deep in leaves; The feather of the milkweed flutters down. (d) The shoots of spring have mellowed with the year. Buds, long unsealed, obscure the narrow lane. The blood slows trance-like in the altered vein; Our vernal wisdom moves through ripe to sere. 2. MID-COUNTRY BLOW (a) All night and all day the wind roared in the trees Until I could think there were waves rolling high as my bedroom floor; When I stood at the window, an elm bough swept to my knees; The blue spruce lashed like a surf at the doo r. (b) The second dawn I could not have believed; ...
Read more

Poems of Walter de la Mare, 1873-1956

 Selected from Collected Poems 1901-1918, Vol II: Songs of Childhood, Peacock Pie , 1920, unless otherwise noted. We compiled a brief biography of de la Mare for you. Click here to read it. Purchase AO's Volume 2 poetry collection, which includes de la Mare, Field, Riley, and Rossetti in paperback or Kindle ( $amzn ) ( K ) 01. The Horseman I heard a horseman    Ride over the hill; The moon shone clear, The night was still; His helm was silver,    And pale was he; And the horse he rode    Was of ivory. 02. Up and Down Down the Hill of Ludgate,    Up the Hill of Fleet, To and fro and East and West    With people flows the street; Even the King of England    On Temple Bar must beat For leave to ride to Ludgate    Down the Hill of Fleet. 03. Mrs. Earth Mrs. Earth makes silver black,    Mrs. Earth makes iron red But Mrs. Earth can not st...
Read more