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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE YEARS TO BE, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I cried to them in the twilight, in the shadowy places Last Line: They are robed now in light, now in night -- but I have not seen their faces! Subject(s): Grief; Sorrow; Sadness | |||
I cried to them in the twilight, in the shadowy places. They are robed in a blinding light, but I have not seen their faces. Their music is loud and sweet To the beat of their glancing feet. They are light through a prism glancing, in the dance of their moods and graces. I cried to them from the summit where the wind was laughter. I saw them against the sunset, ere they fled to the days hereafter. Their music is sweet and long Like a thin-drawn note of song. I followed them with my soul, but my feet might not follow after. I cried to them at the morn, when my pulses beat to a tabor. I cried to them in the noon, in the heat and sweat of my labor. In my cheerless night I cried With my dead that lay beside, When my voice was the hiss of a sword, and my grief as the bite of a sabre. But they will not stop to speak nor to whisper of times or places. They mock before -- still before -- when the eager thought out-races. And ever the throb of cheers Faint-blown through a mist of tears! They are robed now in light, now in night -- but I have not seen their faces! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |
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