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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A MEMORY, by ANNIE MATHESON Poet's Biography
First Line: Where is he! Does he never touch
Last Line: What poetry his soul had planned.
Subject(s): Memory
First Line: Where is he! Does he never touch
Last Line: What poetry his soul had planned.
Subject(s): Memory
WHERE is he! Does he never touch
This old green earth he loved so much,
Or see the golden leaves and red
Whirled softly to their mossy bed
From flaming branches overhead?—
Where is he? Does he never hear
The winds wail for the dying year,
Or, leaning on some fern-grown wall,
Dream, while the quiet shadows fall
Until the darkness covers all?
Where is he now, whose fancies played,
Like laughing stream or leafy shade,
Round those who in the glare of day,
With much their courage to dismay,
Trudged wearily life's dusty way?—
Where is he? Many a time perplexed,
With paths foregone his eyes were vexed,
Ah, has death given him life's clue?—
To us he still was kind and true;
His friendship overbrimmed our due.
Where is he?—And what is the goal?—
God only knows: God rest his soul!
Men count our sins, or, scornful, bless
What seems to them our slight success:
God knows the heart's own bitterness.
And God is with him. God, who knew
His whole life, will not misconstrue
Some blotted words men roughly scanned
In life's poor prose, but understand
What poetry his soul had planned.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
MEMORY AS A HEARING AID by TONY HOAGLAND
THE SAME QUESTION by JOHN HOLLANDER
FORGET HOW TO REMEMBER HOW TO FORGET by JOHN HOLLANDER
ON THAT SIDE by LAWRENCE JOSEPH
MEMORY OF A PORCH by DONALD JUSTICE
BEYOND THE HUNTING WOODS by DONALD JUSTICE