Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LAMENT OF THE ORGANIST OF NOTRE-DAME DE NICE, by JULES LAFORGUE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LAMENT OF THE ORGANIST OF NOTRE-DAME DE NICE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hark, already the winter crows
Last Line: I have made for the death of the earth.
Subject(s): Despair; Organs (musical Instruments)


Hark, already the winter crows
Have said their psalm among our bells;
The autumn showers are near, like knells;
Farewell the woods of the casinos.

Last night her cheek had a paler dye
And her body shivered, numbed quite through;
This church of ours is icy, too.
Ah, none loves her down here but I.

I! I shall cut my heart out, tooled
For the sake of a smile so sad from her,
And remain true to her image there
Forever, in this victorious world.

The day that she leaves this world
A Miserere I mean to play
So cosmic in its despairing way
That God will have to return me word.

No, I shall stay down here, all dark,
Loyal to my dear phthisic dead,
Rocking my heart too deeply fed
With the eternal fugues of Bach.

And every year, at the new year's birth,
On our anniversary, constant then,
I shall unroll this Requiem
I have made for the death of the Earth.





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