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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MAY AND HALLOWMAS by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE

Poet Analysis

First Line: BLACK IN THE FADING LIGHT
Last Line: I HAD NO SIGN OF YOU.

I

BLACK in the fading light
Rose the old house I knew;
A plum-tree, here and there in white,
Upon the terrace grew.
A wind came from the sea,
And shook the blossoms down,
And all of May was blown to me;
I heard the clamoring town.
Caught in the petaled snow,
You stood upon the stair,
The darkening garden-walks below,
The sunset in the air.

II.

Betwixt green leaf and brown
What yesterdays are pent!
This sunset through the clamoring town,
That self-same way I went.
About me everywhere
Lurked some vague smack of spring;
And looked the stripped plum-branches there
Ready for blossoming.
There, in the terrace grass,
The old year seemed the new;
Yet, in the whole of Hallowmas,
I had no sign of you.




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