Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LIFE AND DEATH: 8, by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LIFE AND DEATH: 8, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not for a rapture unalloyed I ask
Last Line: To aid the larger life that may survive.
Subject(s): Death; Life; Dead, The


NOT for a rapture unalloyed I ask.
Not for a recompense for all I miss.
A banquet of the gods in heavenly bliss,
A realm in whose warm sunshine I may bask,
Life without discipline or earnest task
Could ill repay the unfinished work of this.
Nay -- e'en to clasp some long-lost Beatrice
In bowers of paradise -- the mortal mask
Dropped from her face now glorified and bright.
But I would fain take up what here I left
All crude and incomplete; would toil and strive
To regain the power of which I am bereft
By slow decay and death, with fuller light
To aid the larger life that may survive.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net