I LIFT my heavy heart up solemnly, As once Electra her sepulchral urn, And, looking in thine eyes, I overturn The ashes at thy feet. Behold and see What a great heap of grief lay hid in me, And how the red wild sparkles dimly burn Through the ashen grayness. If thy foot in scorn Could tread them out to darkness utterly, It might be well perhaps. But if instead Thou wait beside me for the wind to blow The gray dust up, ... those laurels on thine head, O my Beloved, will not shield thee so, That none of all the fires shall scorch and shred The hair beneath. Stand farther off then! go. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PURSUIT AND POSSESSION by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO LADY CHARLOTTYE GORDON; DRESSED IN A TARTAN SCOTCH BONNET by JAMES BEATTIE PSALM 26. JUDICA ME DEUS by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE TO L.E.L. ON THE DEATH OF FELICIA HEMANS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE WEST WIND by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT |