Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, O MY LOVE LEONORE, by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

O MY LOVE LEONORE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O my love leonore! O my lithe lady!
Last Line: O my love leonore, -- o my lithe lady? --
Alternate Author Name(s): Davis, Fannie Stearns
Subject(s): Death; Dead, The


O MY Love Leonore! O my lithe Lady!
Is it the Grave you are gracing to-night?
Is your breast cold now and covered with white?
Are you grown stiff, who were lissome and light? --

Are they the plain coffin-planks that you see,
Narrow for feet that were flying and free,
Rude for white hands that wove spells over me? --
O my Love Leonore, -- O my lithe Lady? --

Is your cheek cool of the flush that I fanned?
Must you not dance now, nor once wave your hand?
Can you not laugh, through the small stones and sand, --
O my Love Leonore! O my lithe Lady? --

-- It is the Grave I am gracing to-night.
I am clay-cold now, and stiff-limbed, and white.
A great Lord, DEATH, hath me in this plight.

O my Love Leonore, O my lithe Lady,
If he, the great Lord, lays hands on your hand,
He will not help you to dance or to stand;
Nor from your eyes brush the small stones and sand.

Therefore farewell. Whom he wooeth is won.
Therefore farewell. I am jealous of none.
Are not both dancing and dying soon done?
O my Love Leonore, -- O my lithe Lady? --





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