Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BREATH OF LIFE, by JAMES STEPHENS Poet's Biography First Line: And while they talked and talked, and while they sat Last Line: And the great sun tossed laughter on the world! Subject(s): Life | ||||||||
And while they talked and talked, and while they sat Changing their base minds into baser coin; And telling -- they! how truth and beauty join, And how a certain this was good, but that Was baser than the viper or the toad, Or the blind beggar glaring down the road. I turned from them in fury, and I ran To where the moon shone out upon the height, Down the long reaches of a summer night Stretching slim fingers, and the starry clan Grew thicker than the flowers that we see Clustered in quiet fields of greenery. The quietudes that sunder star from star; The hazy distances of loneliness, Where never eagle's wing, or timid press Of lark or wren could venture; and the far Profundities untroubled and unstirred By any act of man or thought or word: These held me with amazement and delight! I yearned up through the spaces of the sky, Beyond the rolling clouds, beyond the high And delicate white moon, and up the height, And past the rocking stars, and out to where The aether failed in spaces sharp and bare. The Breath that is the very Breath of Life Throbbed close to me! I heard the pulses beat, That lift the universes into heat! The slow withdrawal, and the deeper strife Of His wide respiration -- like a sea It ebbed and flooded through immensity. The Breath of Life, in wave on mighty wave! O moon and stars swell to a raptured song! Ye mountains toss the harmony along! O little men, with little souls to save, Swing up glad chauntings! Ring the skies above With boundless gratitude for boundless love! Probing the ocean to its steepest drop! Rejoicing in the viper and the toad; And the blind beggar glaring down the road; And they, who talk and talk and never stop, Equally quickening! With a care to bend The gnat's slant wing into a swifter end. The silence clung about me like a gift! The tender night-time folded me around Protectingly! And, in a peace profound, The clouds drooped slowly backward, drift on drift Into the darkness; and the moon was gone; And soon the stars had vanished, every one. But on the sky, a handsbreath in the west, A faint cold, radiance crept, and soared and spread; Until the rustling heavens overhead, And the grey trees, and grass, were manifest. Then, through the chill, a golden spear was hurled, And the great sun tossed laughter on the world! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRIVILEGE OF BEING by ROBERT HASS SEAWATER STIFFENS CLOTH by JANE HIRSHFIELD SAYING YES TO LIVING by DAVID IGNATOW THE WORLD IS SO DIFFICULT TO GIVE UP by DAVID IGNATOW |
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