The flames that licked his bronzed Body into deathless ash Have leaped into a giant flame And burned and blackened all the sky; For beauty burned and died with him. No stars can shine again; Our hearts can never smile; These lips of ours can never part in mirth; For in the dust about our feet, Trampled into earth, are the white ashes of a man, Who went to his death in a black flame. The clouds above are black with soot While bolts of lightning, finger-like, Point down in shame at this smoldering fire, This heap of nauseating ash; For God sees and disapproves But, American-like, does not act. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BOSTON COMMON: 1630 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES DEAD MEN, TO A METAPHYSICIAN by WILLIAM HERVEY ALLEN JR. VICTORY by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 48. AL-WADOOD by EDWIN ARNOLD WITHER AWAY by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY A PSALM by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN OLD REMEDIES by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN RECOLLECTIONS OF SOLITUDE; AN ELEGY by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES |