Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AT PARTYING, by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE First Line: The night is silent, love, and here beside thee Last Line: Ah, holy, holy moment of farewell! Subject(s): Farewell; Grief; Love; Silence; Parting; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
THE night is silent, love, and here beside thee, Holding the hand that is not now denied me, I too am still; how shall I say farewell? No words have we, and yet the summer weather, Lulling the garden, gathers us together, And mingles us with myrrh and asphodel. Was there a time before that time, I wonder, When something flashed and rent the veil asunder, And visions faded and the Truth befell? And now, because thou art the Truth, I'll grieve thee No longer by forbearing to believe thee, Though I am sent upon a sorrow-spell. How long the way thou sayest not, but only That I must tread it loyally and lonely, Unheeding whether heaven wait, or hell. Why this must be I cannot know, belovéd, But thou dost know, and howsoe'er removéd, Some day, perchance, the secret thou wilt tell. Nothing I ask; how shall the Truth be bounded? I leave thee, yet by thee I'm still surrounded: The sea's voice sounds about the farthest shell. The moonlight deepens, love, and grows to golden, And thou and I in it are strangely holden; Ah, holy, holy moment of farewell! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS A CHILD'S EVENING HYMN by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE |
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