Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BALLAD OF PAST MERIDIAN, by GEORGE MEREDITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A BALLAD OF PAST MERIDIAN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Last [or, one] night returning from my twilight walk
Last Line: Of death, of life, those inwound notes are mine.
Subject(s): Death; Life; Dead, The


I

LAST night returning from my twilight walk
I met the grey mist Death, whose eyeless brow
Was bent on me, and from his hand of chalk
He reached me flowers as from a withered bough:
O Death, what bitter nosegays givest thou!

II

Death said, I gather, and pursued his way.
Another stood by me, a shape in stone,
Sword-hacked and iron-stained, with breasts of clay,
And metal veins that sometimes fiery shone:
O Life, how naked and how hard when known!

III

Life said, As thou hast carved me, such am I.
Then memory, like the nightjar on the pine,
And sightless hope, a woodlark in night sky,
Joined notes of Death and Life till night's decline:
Of Death, of Life, those inwound notes are mine.





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