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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
INGENERATE, by ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY Poet's Biography
First Line: An ancient rune goes running in my blood
Last Line: Of mad, sweet things ...
Subject(s): Memory
First Line: An ancient rune goes running in my blood
Last Line: Of mad, sweet things ...
Subject(s): Memory
AN ancient rune goes running in my blood—
A small refrain
That sings lost wonder and a dead delight ...
And stirs old pain.
From out beyond the bar of memory
It comes to me
And beats upon the shore of consciousness
Insistently.
It may be that my forebears made and sang
The little air
In long-forgotten time, in some far land—
I know not where!
I only know that it is part of me—
My pulses beat
To its old rhythm—to its cadence march,
Attuned, my feet.
I cannot sing it—no, nor quite recall
Its melody
In all the din of day ... but in the night
It comes to me—
Comes to me softly ... on the edge of dreams ...
A gallant air,
As of old knights in armor riding by
And ladies fair.
The crash of battle, and the galloping
Of horses mad,
Are in its music ... there are woman-tears
To make it sad.
Who made the song—and why it comes to me—
I cannot say—
Only that it belongs to me, I know
In some sure way.
All of the wonder and delight it sings
And all the woe
Were mine, were mine—back in forgotten time ...
So much I know!
And when the little tune beats in my brain
And croons and sings—
It troubles me with dim remembrances
Of mad, sweet things ...
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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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
A DESERTED HOUSE by ROSELLE MERCIER MONTGOMERY