Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WHEN MARY DIED by KATHARINE TYNAN

First Line: SHE ONLY DIED LAST WEEK AND YET
Last Line: THAT BUDDED WHEN SHE WENT AWAY.
Subject(s): DEATH; GRIEF; MOURNING; DEAD, THE; SORROW; SADNESS; BEREAVEMENT;

SHE only died last week and yet
Suns might have risen, suns have set
A thousand: May's here like a bride,
And it was May when Mary died.

Incredible! We might last week
Have kissed her, praised her, heard her speak,
Who now has travelled far, so far
Beyond the moon and the day-star.

Since she has gone all Time and Space
Have lost their meanings: Mary's face
Grows dim in distance; like a light
Far down a distance infinite.

Last week! Why, this new grief we have
Is old as Time, old as the grave;
It was and will be; darkness spread
Over the world since Mary's dead.

Last week she died. The lilac-bough
Her eyes watched bud is blooming now;
The chestnut's lit her lamp since then;
And the lost cuckoo's come again.

A week ago! O endless space,
Since Mary heavenward turned her face!
And still the lilac's on the spray
That budded when she went away.



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