Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DARKEST HOUR; OXFORD, 1917, by GEORGE SANTAYANA


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THE DARKEST HOUR; OXFORD, 1917, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Smother thy flickering light, the vigil is o'er
Last Line: A cold moon gilds the waves of acheron.
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


Smother thy flickering light, the vigil's o'er.
Hope, early wounded, of his wounds is dead.
Many a night long he smiled, his drooping head
Laid on thy breast, and that brave smile he wore
Not yet from his unbreathing lips is fled.
Enough: on mortal sweetness look no more,
Pent in this charnel-house, fling wide the door
And on the stars that killed him gaze instead.
The world's too vast for hope. The unteachable sun
Rises again and will reflood his sphere,
Blotting with light what yesterday was done;
But the unavailing truth, though dead, lives on,
And in eternal night, unkindly clear,
A cold moon gilds the waves of Acheron.





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