Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DEATH, by EVGENY ABRAMOVICH BARATYNSKY First Line: I call not death the child of darkness Last Line: From us all chains you cast away. Alternate Author Name(s): Boratynsky, Yevgeny Abramovich | ||||||||
I CALL not Death the child of darkness, Nor, with the fancy of a slave, Give him a scythe to arm his starkness Nor skeleton from out the grave. O offspring of the air our master, O ornament with brilliant charms, You beat no scythe that brings disaster But peaceful olive in your arms. When first the world arose in flowers From raging forces matched and blent, To you a guardian's rule and powers Were trusted by the Omnipotent. And flying over all creation To harmony you straighten strife, And there with cooling exhalation You tame the violence of life. You overcome the mutinous riot And mad strength of the hurricane; You turn the ocean back in quiet To hasten to its shores again. In plants you set the bounds to growing, That no gigantic wood may rise O'er earth with ruinous shadows blowing, That grass may grow not to the skies. And what of man? O holy Maiden, When you have come, all angry fire Dies out with which his cheeks were laden, Flies all lascivious desire. To your impartial justice presses The crowd when sickness is its fate; And that same hand of yours caresses Both servitor and potentate. Force and confusion are our being, Conditions of our tangled day. But, us from every riddle freeing, From us all chains you cast away. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE STORY OF THE ASHES AND THE FLAME by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE HOMECOMING by THOMAS HARDY EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: A DRIFTER OFF TARENTUM by RUDYARD KIPLING SCILLA'S METAMORPHOSIS: MELANCHOLY by THOMAS LODGE |
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