Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


Y IS FOR YOUTH by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES

Poet Analysis

First Line: WOULD I HAD MET YOU IN MY DAYS OF STRENGTH
Last Line: AND PERISH IN THE BRAIN THAT GIVES THEM BIRTH.
Subject(s): YOUTH;

Would I had met you in my days of strength,
Before my tide of life had turned, my Love;
These lightning streaks, that come in fitful starts,
Are not the great forked lightnings you deserve;
Too many silver moons has my life worn
Into an old thin rim, since I was born.

What you deserve are those enchanted notes
We sing in dreams at night; so pure and sweet
That kings and queens sit down with bended heads,
And listen with their crowns laid at their feet:
Those songs that pass, without a voice on Earth,
And perish in the brain that gives them birth.



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