O my body, my eyes, my mouth, Why do we live? To breathe day's farewell in the darkening south, To bring to the quest of a virgin's drouth The draught we can give; To trail in the dark of an icy stream The branch of a dark laurel, While dimly we watch, in the depths of our dream, Virgil caressed by shades auroral; To ride a savage horse, To breast a torrent's course. ... O my heart, why do we live? To be a moment of the primal cause of birth, An hour of the essence vibrative, One of the secret mates of eternal earth. Why live, O deepest flesh of me, why live, Why quicken cordial breath, Save to expand the widening realms of death! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BLACK FINGER by ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE THE TRAVELLER AT THE SOURCE OF THE NILE by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE HOCK-CART, OR HARVEST HOME by ROBERT HERRICK THE MARTYRS OF THE MAINE by RUPERT HUGHES EN TOUR; A SONG SEQUENCE: 1. THE GARGOYLE by ALBERTA BANCROFT TWELVE SONNETS: 4. LONELY SEASONS by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) TO A PROFILE by BERNARD BARTON |