Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REGRETS, by ANNA ELISABETH MATHIEU DE NOAILLES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REGRETS, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: Go, for I wish to be alone among the tombs
Last Line: Finding my ashes' heat more fervent than their lives.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brancovan, Princess
Subject(s): Death; Hearts; Life; Nature; Regret; Dead, The


Go, for I wish to be alone among the tombs;
The dead are 'neath the earth and day in beauty blooms.
The air is tinct with dew, with leaf, with bud, with tree.
The dead are deep in death for all eternity;
And I, who dance, must die and lie where ruin lies,
Sleep there with stony brow and stare with voided eyes.
In silence and alone I must go down to death,
Who ne'er have slept alone or breathed a lonely breath.
All that is mine must die; the I in me must cease,
With lips and eyes and heart, desire, resolve, caprice,
When I become the shade and sink to silent earth.
And when May breaks in green and rosy-petalled mirth
And rises, laved with gold, pulsed upward by its sap,
Then I, whose heart was blithe, who lolled in Folly's lap,
Transformed chameleon-wise by hope and grief and scorn,
Shall no more wish for night or wait the bitter morn
But lie in cold repose for ever and for aye.
Youth still will thrill and laugh and trip the primrose way,
And man will walk with maid beside the waving wheat
And gaze on sickled joy and happy labour greet,
Adown the deepening aisles of Nature's glory led;
But I shall see no more -- no more -- I shall be dead.
I shall be reft of life and filched of all its sweet,
But those who read my book my spirit there shall meet
And find therein my soul and see what I have seen
And, gazing on my shade as crystal clear and clean,
Shall languidly depart the while their envy rives,
Finding my ashes' heat more fervent than their lives.





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