Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WORDS, by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER Poet's Biography First Line: Words are lighter than the cloud-foam Last Line: Echoes in god's skies. Alternate Author Name(s): Berwick, Mary Subject(s): Death; Hearts; Language; Life; Dead, The; Words; Vocabulary | ||||||||
WORDS are lighter than the cloud-foam Of the restless ocean spray; Vainer than the trembling shadow That the next hour steals away. By the fall of summer rain-drops Is the air as deeply stirred; And the rose-leaf that we tread on Will outlive a word. Yet, on the dull silence breaking With a lightning flash, a Word, Bearing endless desolation On its blighting wings, I heard: Earth can forge no keener weapon, Dealing surer death and pain, And the cruel echo answered Through long years again. I have known one word hang star-like O'er a dreary waste of years, And it only shone the brighter Looked at through a mist of tears; While a weary wanderer gathered Hope and heart on Life's dark way, By its faithful promise-shining Clearer day by day. I have known a spirit, calmer Than the calmest lake, and clear As the heavens that gazed upon it, With no wave of hope or fear; But a storm had swept across it, And its deepest depths were stirred, (Never, never more to slumber,) Only by a word. I have known a word more gentle Than the breath of summer air; In a listening heart it nestled, And it lived forever there. Not the beating of its prison Stirred it ever, night or day, Only with the heart's last throbbing Could it fade away. Words are mighty, words are living; Serpents with their venomous stings, Or bright angels crowding round us, With heaven's light upon their wings: Every word has its own spirit, True or false, that never dies; Every word man's lips have uttered Echoes in God's skies. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOWYOUBEENS' by TERRANCE HAYES MY LIFE: REASON LOOKS FOR TWO, THEN ARRANGES IT FROM THERE by LYN HEJINIAN THE FATALIST: THE BEST WORDS by LYN HEJINIAN WRITING IS AN AID TO MEMORY: 17 by LYN HEJINIAN CANADA IN ENGLISH by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA THERE IS NO WORD by TONY HOAGLAND CONSIDERED SPEECH by JOHN HOLLANDER AND MOST OF ALL, I WANNA THANK ?Ǫ by JOHN HOLLANDER A DOUBTING HEART by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER |
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