Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DECOY, by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DECOY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tell us, o pilgrim, what strange she
Last Line: And none fore-tokens rest.'
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter


'Tell us, O pilgrim, what strange She
Lures and decoys your wanderings on?
Cheek, eye, brow, lip, you scan each face,
Smile, ponder -- and are gone.

'Are we not flesh and blood? Mark well,
We touch you with our hands. We speak
A tongue that may earth's secrets tell:
Why further will you seek?'

'Far have I come, and far must fare.
Noon and night and morning-prime,
I search the long road, bleak and bare,
That fades away in Time.

'On the world's brink its wild weeds shake,
And there my own dust, dark with dew,
Burns with a rose that, sleep or wake,
Beacons me -- "Follow true!"'

'Her name, crazed soul? And her degree?
What peace, prize, profit in her breast?'
'A thousand cheating names hath she;
And none fore-tokens rest.'





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