Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE YEARS TO BE, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE YEARS TO BE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I cried to them in the twilight, in the shadowy places
Last Line: They are robed now in light, now in night -- but I have not seen their faces!
Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness


I cried to them in the twilight, in the shadowy places.
They are robed in a blinding light, but I have not seen their faces.
Their music is loud and sweet
To the beat of their glancing feet.
They are light through a prism glancing, in the dance of their moods and graces.

I cried to them from the summit where the wind was laughter.
I saw them against the sunset, ere they fled to the days hereafter.
Their music is sweet and long
Like a thin-drawn note of song.
I followed them with my soul, but my feet might not follow after.

I cried to them at the morn, when my pulses beat to a tabor.
I cried to them in the noon, in the heat and sweat of my labor.
In my cheerless night I cried
With my dead that lay beside,
When my voice was the hiss of a sword, and my grief as the bite of a sabre.

But they will not stop to speak nor to whisper of times or places.
They mock before -- still before -- when the eager thought out-races.
And ever the throb of cheers
Faint-blown through a mist of tears!
They are robed now in light, now in night -- but I have not seen their faces!





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