Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DONDE ESTAN? (A FRAGMENT), by JAMES ELROY FLECKER Poet's Biography First Line: We are they who dream no dreams Last Line: Of proud vienna. | ||||||||
I We are they who dream no dreams, Singers of arising day Who undaunted, Where the sword of reason gleams, Follow hard, to hew away The woods enchanted. Through each dark and rustling byway Evil things have fled before us: We pursue them: We have carved an open highway, We have sung of Truth in chorus As we slew them. II Though the shapes had something human, Though sweet lips and eyes entreated By their beauty: Though processions of tall women Looked and lured, we undefeated Did our duty. Though fair children, running after, Held out hands of supplication, Smiled and cried, Yet we watched with bitter laughter When delusion's fair creation Smitten, died. III Where are they, the half-deceivers Statue-forms and young men's fancies, Gods of Greece? Dryads, where your groves and rivers, Where thy chaste and woodland dances, Artemis? Shadows, shadows! None will follow Cyprian maids; or voices sighing From the sea; Veiled is Iris, dark Apollo, Dead the Queen who called the dying Hecate. * * * V Where are they who crushed the East With ribaldry and song, and where The lewd viziers? Where the girls who crowned the feast For the Lords who had no care Of blood or tears? Where the millions who, forgotten, Fought for Selim's sultanate And filled Gehenna? Where the sword? -- but dim and rotten Lies the sword that cleft the gate Of proud Vienna. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE OLD SHIPS by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A FRAGMENT by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A MIRACLE OF BETHLEHEM by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A NEW YEAR'S CAROL by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A SACRED DIALOGUE (CHRISTMAS 1912) by JAMES ELROY FLECKER A WESTERN VOYAGE by JAMES ELROY FLECKER BALLAD OF CAMDEN TOWN by JAMES ELROY FLECKER BALLAD OF THE LONDONER by JAMES ELROY FLECKER BRUMANA by JAMES ELROY FLECKER |
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