Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE UNKNOWN BROTHERS, by LOUIS V. LEDOUX


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE UNKNOWN BROTHERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Singing band by song united
Last Line: But they triumph though they fail.
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


SINGING band by song united
When the blue Ægean plains
Girdled isles where lovers lighted
Lamps in Kypris' seaward fanes;
Singing Brothers, earth enfolden,
What of you and of your olden
Music now! What still remains?

Scattered blooms, surviving only
As the petal holds the rose,
In the garden where the lonely
Scarlet flower of Sappho blows;
And of some no single token —
Leaf or bud, or blossom broken —
Now the mounded garden shows.

Was there lack of exaltation
In the burden of their song?
Had they less of consecration?
Proved the path of Beauty long?
Did they pause for pleasant resting?
Swerve or falter in their questing?
Have the ages done them wrong?

Some there may have been who faltered
By the bright Ægean foam,
Seeing life with vision altered
As the soul forgot its home;
Some it may be in confusion,
After youth's divine illusion,
Turned to till the kindly loam.

Some there are in all the ages
Lonely vigil fail to keep;
Some allured by wisdom's pages
Chart the sky and sound the deep;
Some give up the long foregoing —
Human touches, reaping, sowing —
Some with Sappho take the leap.

But the most wait unrepining,
Hopeful when all hope is fled,
For fulfilment of the shining
Dawn that lingers far ahead,
And, by paths of no returning
Where the hearth-fires are not burning,
March companioned by the dead.

Through neglect or loud derision,
Mocked at by the worldly-wise,
Bearing burdens of misprision,
Seeking truth and finding lies,
Follow they the glow or glimmer
Of the vision growing dimmer
As the death-mist fills their eyes.

Never can you be requited,
Unknown Brothers, staunch and brave;
You the bitter gods have slighted,
Only half their gift they gave,
Gave the patience of endeavor,
Kept fruition back forever,
Felled the cypress by your grave.

You are passed, but unknown brothers,
Finding faith of small avail,
Follow now as followed others,
And I pause to bid them hail.
Brothers are they in believing,
Some it may be are achieving,
But they triumph though they fail.




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