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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


REQUIEM by JOHN COWPER POWYS

First Line: WHERE, OH WHERE, SHOULD LOVE BE LAID?
Last Line: HUMAN HEARTS ARE MADE.
Subject(s): EYES; HEARTS; KISSES; LOVE; NIGHT; SEA; WIND; BEDTIME; OCEAN;

Where, oh where, should love be laid?
Where the sigh of the heather-bell,
To the wandering wind can tell,
Tell too heavily, tell too well,
How human hearts are made!

Lift him gently from where he lies
So pale now!
With frozen kisses upon his eyes,
And faded petals upon his brow.
Carry him gently far away,
And bury him out of the sight of day,
Where neither sun nor rain
Can trouble him again.
We have killed him and love grown cold
Is better buried under the mould.

Where, oh where, should love be laid?
Where the lost soul of the sea
Moans and weeps perpetually,
Where the cold night cries in vain
For what cannot come again.

Where, oh where, should love be laid?
Where the sigh of the sea-shell,
To the sobbing wind can tell,
Tell too heavily, tell too well,
How cruel-faithless, how cruel-light,
While love lies dying in the night,
Human hearts are made.



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