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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DEPARTURE IN THE DARK, by CECIL DAY LEWIS Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Nothing so sharply reminds a man he is mortal Last Line: And will be, even to the last of his dark departures. Alternate Author Name(s): Blake, Nicolas Subject(s): Exodus From Egypt | |||
Nothing so sharply reminds a man he is mortal As leaving a place In a winter morning's dark, the air on his face Unkind as the touch of sweating metal: Simple goodbyes to children or friends become A felon's numb Farewell, and love that was a warm, a meeting place -- Love is the suicide's grave under the nettles. Gloomed and clemmed as if by an imminent ice-age Lies the dear world Of your street-strolling, field-faring. The senses, curled At the dead end of a shrinking passage, Care not if close the inveterate hunters creep, And memories sleep Like mammoths in lost caves. Drear, extinct is the world, And has no voice for consolation or presage. There is always something at such times of the passover, When the dazed heart Beats for it knows not what, whether you part From home or prison, acquaintance or lover -- Something wrong with the time-table, something unreal In the scrambled meal And the bag ready packed by the door, as though the heart Has gone ahead, or is staying here for ever. No doubt for the Israelites that early morning It was hard to be sure If home were prison or prison home: the desire Going forth meets the desire returning. This land, that had cut their pride down to the bone Was now their own By ancient deeds of sorrow. Beyond, there was nothing sure But a desert of freedom to quench their fugitive yearnings. At this blind hour the heart is informed of nature's Ruling that man Should be nowhere a more tenacious settler than Among wry thorns and ruins, yet nurture A seed of discontent in his ripest ease. There's a kind of release And a kind of torment in every goodbye for every man -- And will be, even to the last of his dark departures. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GO DOWN, MOSES by SALLY BRUCE KINSOLVING SONG OF THE RED REPUBLICAN (1) by GERALD MASSEY SONG OF THE RED REPUBLICAN (2) by GERALD MASSEY |
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