"I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, Cleis, the beloved." Sapphic fragment. When the dusk was wet with dew, Cleis, did the muses nine Listen in a silent line While your mother sang to you? Did they weep or did they smile When she crooned to still your cries, She, a muse in human guise, Who forsook her lyre awhile? Did you feel her wild heart beat? Did the warmth of all the sun Thro' your little body run When she kissed your hands and feet? Did your fingers, babywise, Touch her face and touch her hair, Did you think your mother fair, Could you bear her burning eyes? Are the songs that soothed your fears Vanished like a vanished flame, Save the line where shines your name Starlike down the graying years? Cleis speaks no word to me, For the land where she has gone Lieth mute at dusk and dawn Like a windless tideless sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PETRIFIED FERN by MARY LYDIA BOLLES BRANCH A FIT OF RHYME AGAINST RHYME [OR, RIME] by BEN JONSON ANTONIO by LAURA ELIZABETH HOWE RICHARDS THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 78. BODY'S BEAUTY by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ON CHLORIS WALKING IN THE SNOW by WILLIAM STRODE GOD'S DETERMINATIONS: THE JOY OF CHURCH FELLOWSHIP RIGHTLY ATTENDED by EDWARD TAYLOR SONG AT THE FEAST OF BROUGHAM CASTLE; UPON RSTORATION OF LORD CLIFFORD by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ON HEARING THAT THE STUDENTS OF OUR NEW UNIVERSITY JOINED AGITATION .. by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |