Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MUSICIAN, by CLIFFORD BAX


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MUSICIAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Many know you now by virtue of that music
Last Line: All the rest of life is lovelier for those years.
Subject(s): Memory; Music & Musicians


(A. B.)
MANY know you now by virtue of that music
Known to me, and loved, since you and I were boys, --

Music like heard fire, or hazed with unrelinquished
Adolescent dreams of more than man may find:

I alone, or I and three or four, remember
How, in earlier years when none acclaimed your skill,

Shadowed in the morn by sycamore and chestnut,
Many a summer through our triple wicket stood;

How we pegged the net before the trees had budded;
How we played when leaves were blown across the
pitch;

How we drove the ball far out amidst the orchard,
Up the strawberry beds or through the gardener's
glass.

We alone -- and one, perhaps, who fell in battle --
Still can see with you the games that lengthened out

Even until at last the bowler, dim with twilight,
Hit the bails, and won: and we, alone, recall

How we gathered after round the noisy tea-cups,
Tired and glad and young, and knew the world was
good.

Good it was indeed, for none of us had sorrowed,
None so much as feared to hurt another's life:

Yet though all is changed, and gone the gracious garden,
Gone the scarless mind of many-troubled youth,

Count me not with those that whine for what is over, --
All that once was good is good for evermore;

All we had of joy endures, a joy within us;
All the rest of life is lovelier for those years.




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