Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SORROW, by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SORROW, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What shape can I build of rhythm or melody
Last Line: As the night, eternal and changeless, folds it about forever.
Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness


What shape can I build of rhythm or melody,
To embody my vague and shadowy sorrow,
My passion for twilight, for faded hours,
Old thoughts and seasons, that trouble my soul?
Can I pour forth gorgeous words in a torrent of melody,
Or with a shy simplicity hint at my grief;
Can I carve pale cloudy shapes from vast mountains of marble,
Or paint some low-vibrating twilight moment?
Or can I wake in the keys the sad, broken, sobbing arpeggios,
The solemn chords, the melodies darkly recurring,
Tunes of a time gone by, to unburden my soul of its evening,
Its clouds, its chilly breezes,
Its cypresses, its pools unquietly shivering,
Its mossy urns, its statues shattered,
And its hillsides etched bleak, bare, and solemn in the
grey space of western sky?
Alas, for all these that are vain; yes, even the magic of music,
Creating the pulses of passion, only hints at the infinite longing
Of a sorrow like mine alone with unattainable beauty
Above it, and dead dreams as broken toys at its feet,
And the evening about it, and the stars thick as tears in the sky,
While the day, it knows, is long past, and even day's memory fading
As the night, eternal and changeless, folds it about forever.





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