Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO WOUNDED FRANCE, by ANDRE GERMAIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO WOUNDED FRANCE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Land of my birth, basket laden with all the fruits of life
Last Line: Fragrance dissolved, your shattered diadem!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cendre, Lois
Subject(s): Cities; France; Travel; Urban Life; Journeys; Trips


Land of my birth, basket laden with all the fruits of life, nay, all the dreams
that the poet-bee visits forever as his flower-cups,
Of your two rhythms, the story and the deed, I have chosen as my own heart
beats,
Devoutly I have dedicated you to incantations, to regrets, to wanderings,
I have offered my life unto you, and my steps that dream as long journeys over
your beauties,
Your every province is to me the asylum of a folded wing, the resting-place of a
light that was drowned in darkness.
Cherishing your beloved dead, I reawakened their hopes in the morning voice of
your fountains; amidst the panoply of the sunset I glimpsed your further
splendors;
The phantoms sent forth their bark upon the streams, and the poems builded their
nest amid the woodlands;
I would have found in every city a vanished king, in every vale a sleeping lily.
O my country! I bore you against my breast as a great quivering bird whose every
cry is a memory, whose every pulse an inspiration.
And now, when your scorched wings are torn from you, after the fury of this
breath of blood and fire,
Wounded in my being's depth, weeping I regard your rainbow broken, your
fragrance dissolved, your shattered diadem!





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