Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SEPARATION, by MATTHEW ARNOLD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SEPARATION, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Stop - not to me, at this bitter departing
Last Line: With the grey eyes, and the lovely brown hair?
Subject(s): Absence; Love; Separation; Isolation


STOP -- Not to me, at this bitter departing,
Speak of the sure consolations of Time.
Fresh be the wound, still-renew'd be its smarting,
So but thy image endure in its prime.

But, if the stedfast commandment of Nature
Wills that remembrance should always decay;
If the lov'd form and the deep-cherish'd feature
Must, when unseen, from the soul fade away--

Me let no half-effac'd memories cumber!
Fled, fled at once, be all vestige of thee--
Deep be the darkness, and still be the slumber--
Dead be the Past and its phantoms to me!

Then, when we meet, and thy look strays towards me,
Scanning my face and the changes wrought there,--
Who, let me say, is this Stranger regards me,
With the grey eyes, and the lovely brown hair?





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