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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LETTER TO MY MOTHER, by SERGEI ESENIN First Line: And are you still alive, my mother? Last Line: Down to the roadside when your chores are done. Alternate Author Name(s): Essenin , Sergei | |||
And are you still alive, my mother? Alive am I and greetings send, And may the light ineffable of evening Upon your humble home descend. They write me you are anxious, mother, Are languishing with longing for your son, Are seen too often in your shabby jacket, Waiting by the roadside when your chores are done. And through the purple shades of twilight, Frighted by a vision, you do start: You seem to me brawling in a tavern With one who sinks a knife into my heart. Take comfort, mother, that is only The frenzied fancy of a troubled brain. Not such a drunk am I or such a monster As to die without embracing you again. I love you tenderly as ever. My only hope, my one desire, Is to find assuagement for my fever Beside your steady-burning fire. I'll come when buds are bursting in the garden, When in the orchard blossoms blow. But mind you do not waken me at dawning As you were wont to do eight years ago. Do not awaken what is meant to slumber, Do not evoke the ghosts of blighted flowers. Too early did I taste forbidden pleasures, Incontinently waste my higher powers. And do not try again to me pious: What's gone is gone -- forever out of sight. You alone are all my strength and gladness, You alone -- ineffable my light. So be not anxious any longer, mother, And do not languish longer for your son, And go no longer in your shabby jacket Down to the roadside when your chores are done. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HERD OF HORSES by SERGEI ESENIN UNCLE JIM'S BAPTIST REVIVAL HYMN by SIDNEY LANIER SONNET: INSCRIPTION FOR A PORTRAIT OF DANTE by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO TO A CHILD OF QUALITY, FIVE YEARS OLD. THE AUTHOR THAN FORTY by MATTHEW PRIOR THE MORAL FABLES: THE TRIAL OF THE FOX by AESOP ON THE ART OF WRITING by PHILIP AYRES |
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