Classic and Contemporary Poetry
AND HAVE I GAZED ON THIS BRIGHT FORM, by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography Last Line: Or its bright innocence with shame to streak Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, Isaac Subject(s): Transience | ||||||||
And have I gazed on this bright form While it was fast decaying? And have I looked on these pale lips While ghastly death and woman's love Thereon with smiles were playing? And do I see that lustrous eye Now quenched in hopeless night? And was that feebly-murmured sigh Thy spirit's heavenward flight? A moment since that eye was bright, A moment since it beamed on me, And now that lovely orb of light Is fixed on dull vacuity; That bosom throbb'd, that cheek was warm, And in that round and polish'd arm The thin blue veins were filled with life; Now motionless and pale they lie; Sad beauteous wrecks of that stern strife In which a soul escaped on high! Can I forget thy sad sweet smile, Thy last, thy long impassioned look? Can I forget the last farewell It then so fondly took? Oh no ''" methinks thy lips still seem That smile of deepest love to beam, And these; eyes that now calmly sleep Beneath their halt-closed thin transparent covers, Have all the lustre in their slumber deep They bad in Hie, and proud dominion keep With light and sunshine over hearts and lover-. Vain thought! Imagination's hollow trick To wean the heart from brooding o'er its sorrow, Away! Death's blighting dews have fallen thick On that dear maiden's pale and bloodless cheek. She smiled to-day; some gentle words did speak, But nor one smile nor syllable will break The silence of to-morrow! Feast, feast mine eyes on happiness forelore, Banquet on loveliness that hath not died, A beauty slumbers there as heretofore, A soul made to be deified. What though the rose, like coward base, hath fled From this cold cheek; the lily still is there; And mark how its pure white is softly spread, Where not one vagrant rose shall dare Again to blossom on this maiden's cheek, Or its bright innocence with shame to streak. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FROM THE SPANISH by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON CHAMBER MUSIC: 17 by JAMES JOYCE SOUTHERN GOTHIC by DONALD JUSTICE THE BEACH IN AUGUST by WELDON KEES THE MAN SPLITTING WOOD IN THE DAYBREAK by GALWAY KINNELL THE SEEKONK WOODS by GALWAY KINNELL JEANIE MORRISON by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL |
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