Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FAIR WATERS OF DREAM, by MARIE DE REGNIER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FAIR WATERS OF DREAM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: By the fair waters of asia, in a green countryside
Last Line: The stroke gone by.
Alternate Author Name(s): D'houville, Gerard; Heredia, Marie De
Subject(s): Dreams; Fountains; Shadows; Water; Waves; Nightmares


By the fair waters of Asia, in a green countryside,
Where grove and fountain met,
More than one tender face have I described
Under the net

Of gloomy transparent veils that hide the cheeks away
And hold the hair prize,
But give light to the soft eternal dreams that play
In the deep eyes.

In your painted skiffs, aloof mysterious shadows,
I loved to perceive,
Over the darker waves, across the pearlier meadows,
Your forms at eve,

Where languid farewells across the heavens gleam
With the spent day,
Perhaps on a thread of water, perhaps on the thread of a dream
Gloomy or fay.

O dear times gone forever on the farthering crack
Of memory's ways.
Come! for our bark is fabulously black,
Delightful days!

You, whom I once possessed entire, warm
Grace of divine hours,
Who show me now no more than an alien form
Dued with vain powers,

By the fair waters of dream, where our languors lolled
Long, and long ago,
Vague phantoms of earlier days that I behold
In present woe,

Tear off the shrouds that under their folds make proof
Your spirit I would press,
For the old weaver Time has spun in the lengthening woof,
Forgetfulness.

Memory! Memory! tear off those shadowy bars
Of various guise,
Or show to me no more the illusive stars
Of your sad eyes!

But over the wave where the charm of that hour sweeps,
At once to die,
The raised oar, dripping, for a moment weeps
The stroke gone by.





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