Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ALTRUIST ORDER, SELECTION, by RENE GHIL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE ALTRUIST ORDER, SELECTION, by                    
First Line: He will not sleep, my child
Last Line: May shine the radiant sun: mankind's first god!
Subject(s): Babies; Home; Life; Mothers; Silence; Infants


He will not sleep, my child. ...
my child
will not sleep, and laughs! and holds to the light
the clutching chance and first-born harmony
of his artless gesture, that does not know
its burden of so many an hereditary night—
and holds to the round light of the high sun
his triumphant gesture of a being of the world!
Your mother's coming, child,
who gave you to life!
to close the windows, heavy with a night of slow
stirred atoms, slow blood! Ah! the night soft and low
as quiet water, you do not know—how far there spread
the sorrow of your eyes, of unsatiated
life, harsh effort! ...

There is a boat (and high
soars the high mast where he soon can spy!)
there is but one boat on the sea
where my love sails home to me.

From tropic countries far (and high
soars the high mast where he soon can spy!)
from tropic lands so far away
my lover's coming back to stay.

From the sun of life (and high
soars the high mast where he soon can spy!)
from the sun your lover brings
beams to gild your choicest things:

and you will find him (with the aid
of stars in the harbor-flow!)
and you will find him all dismayed
at thought of my far-off destiny.

and even when death has come to me
in the name of love, deep below
my distant breast that sighs for him!

But he will not sleep, my child ...
my child
will not sleep, and cries! and holds to the light
he knows too well—the imploring gesture of his dim
exile on the waves of the void where desolately
he must rove. ... Now open, curtains of the night!
Mother of silence: that down the ways untrod
between your fingers that in joy unite
may shine the radiant sun: mankind's first god!





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