Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE YEARS TO BE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET

Poet Analysis

First Line: I CRIED TO THEM IN THE TWILIGHT, IN THE SHADOWY PLACES
Last Line: THEY ARE ROBED NOW IN LIGHT, NOW IN NIGHT -- BUT I HAVE NOT SEEN THEIR FACES!
Subject(s): GRIEF; SORROW; SADNESS;

I cried to them in the twilight, in the shadowy places.
They are robed in a blinding light, but I have not seen their faces.
Their music is loud and sweet
To the beat of their glancing feet.
They are light through a prism glancing, in the dance of their moods and graces.

I cried to them from the summit where the wind was laughter.
I saw them against the sunset, ere they fled to the days hereafter.
Their music is sweet and long
Like a thin-drawn note of song.
I followed them with my soul, but my feet might not follow after.

I cried to them at the morn, when my pulses beat to a tabor.
I cried to them in the noon, in the heat and sweat of my labor.
In my cheerless night I cried
With my dead that lay beside,
When my voice was the hiss of a sword, and my grief as the bite of a sabre.

But they will not stop to speak nor to whisper of times or places.
They mock before -- still before -- when the eager thought out-races.
And ever the throb of cheers
Faint-blown through a mist of tears!
They are robed now in light, now in night -- but I have not seen their faces!



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