Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A TIME TO DANCE, by CECIL DAY LEWIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A TIME TO DANCE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: For those had the power
Last Line: Our lives they are evergreen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blake, Nicolas
Subject(s): Aviation & Aviators; Death; Hope; Airplanes; Air Pilots; Dead, The; Optimism


For those had the power
of the forest tires that burn
Leaving their source in ashes
to flush the sky with fire:
Those whom a famous urn
could not contain, whose passion
Brimmed over the deep grave
and dazzled epitaphs:
For all that have won us wings
to clear the tops of grief,
My friend who within me laughs
bids you dance and sing.

Some set out to explore
earth's limit, and little they recked if
Never their feet came near it
outgrowing the need for glory:
Some aimed at a small objective
but the fierce updraught of their spirit
Forced them to the stars.
Are honoured in public who built
The dam that tamed a river;
or holding the salient for hours
Against odds, cut off and killed,
are remembered by one survivor.

All these. But most for those
whom accident made great,
As a radiant chance encounter
of cloud and sunlight grows
Immortal on the heart:
whose gift was the sudden bounty
Of a passing moment, enriches
The fulfilled eye for ever.
Their spirits float serene
above time's roughest reaches,
But their seed is in us and over
our lives they are evergreen.




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