Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO MY FRIENDS by JOHN COWPER POWYS

First Line: I KNOW YOUR KINDNESS FOR ME, O, MY FRIENDS
Last Line: BY ALL THE WIND AND STARS OF NIGHT AND DAY!
Subject(s): CURSES; FRIENDSHIP; KINDNESS; LOVE; SEA; OCEAN;

I know your kindness for me, O, my friends,
I know the patient love wherewith ye bear
My endless faults; I know your ceaseless care,
Your charitable aims and christian ends;
I know how many times ye've dragged me back
From the wild-leaping sea, whose godless foam
Would bear me far from the accustomed home,
Smooth-footed fields and pleasant pasture-track;
I know how close ye've shut life's shutters down,
Lest I should join the moon's death-revelry;
How ye have driven the fairies far away,
Lest their white limbs should hide the heavenly crown.
And yet I curse ye on this mountain free,
By all the wind and stars of night and day!



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