Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FINITUDE, by CALE YOUNG RICE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FINITUDE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: One ruby, amid a diamond spray of stars
Last Line: And be forgot.
Subject(s): Death; Moon; Sleep; Dead, The


I

One ruby, amid a diamond spray of stars,
The coast-light flashes;
The tide plashes,
Across a mile of bay-sweet land the moon
Comes soon:
She has lost half of her lustre and looks old.

A cricket, finitude's incarnate cry,
And the infinite waters with their hushless sigh
Are the two sounds
The night has:
Each in eternal wistfulness abounds.

II

I have wakened out of my sleep because I too
Am wistful,
Tristful;
Because I know that half of me is gone,
And that all frailty cries in the cricket's tone.

I have wakened out of my sleep to watch and listen.
For what?
To see for a moment universes glisten;
To wonder and want -- and go to sleep again,
And die,
And be forgot.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net