Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REMEMBERING GOLDEN BELLS by PO CHU-YI

First Line: RUINED AND ILL, - A MAN OF TWO SCORE
Last Line: BECAUSE, IN THE ROAD, I MET HER FOSTER-NURSE.
Subject(s): CHINA - TANG DYNASTY (618-905); DAUGHTERS; DEATH - CHILDREN; GRIEF; DEATH - BABIES; SORROW; SADNESS;
RUINED and ill, -- a man of two score;
Pretty and guileless, -- a girl of three.
Not a boy, -- but still better than nothing:
To soothe one's feeling, -- from time to time a kiss!
There came a day, -- they suddenly took her from me;
Her soul's shadow wandered I know not where.
And when I remember how just at the time she died
She lisped strange sounds, beginning to learn to talk,
@3Then@1 I know that the ties of flesh and blood
Only bind us to a load of grief and sorrow.
At last, by thinking of the time before she was born,
By thought and reason I drove the pain away.
Since my heart forgot her, many days have passed
And three times winter has changed to spring.
This morning, for a little, the old grief came back,
Because, in the road, I met her foster-nurse.



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