Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IN FRANCE by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY

First Line: LET NOT A FOREIGN EARTH WEIGH DOWN MY HEAD
Last Line: THEY WILL KNOW I AM THEIRS; THEY WILL MAKE ROOM.
Subject(s): FRANCE; LOVE; SUMMER;

Let not a foreign earth weigh down my head,
Nor mingle with the dust that was my heart!
Lay me among my own when I am dead,
In my own land, eternally a part
Of all I know and love. I could not sleep
With strangers here, and there is aching need
Of sleep after much weariness, and deep
Were mine at home. It is a place, indeed,
For long, untroubled sleep. All summer there
The pale somnambulists of heaven pass
Immense and silver through the turquoise air,
Trailing their purple garments on the grass.

Though friendless, childless, honorless I come,
They will know I am theirs; they will make room.



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