Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EPITAPH, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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EPITAPH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Happily through my years this small stream ran
Last Line: Where with so strong a life you run and sing.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): England; Landscape; English


HAPPILY through my years this small stream ran;
It charmed the boy, and purified the man;
Its hollowed banks were my romantic caves,
Its winter tumults made my ocean waves.
I had no gold, nor silver overmuch,
But what its sunny falls disclosed as such,
And wished no gem, when eyes could here be bright
With the kingfisher's sapphire beam of flight,
Or the pearl shield that tilting fish below
Through arras of blue water-mosses show.
What need for templed lotus, when our stream
Enthroned the yellow lily? here the dream
Of placid Buddha might be as secure;
Visitant wings there were that loved the lure.

With all my years this pretty stream sang on.
I brought one here to praise it; who is gone,
Yet in that crystal soul her mirrored face
With foxgloves looking in still finds a place.
Even the Muse's "melody unheard"
For me is woven with this water's word,
Since here I sat to read immortal song;
The ripple played to that, nor answered wrong.
All that deep-sighing elegy might mourn,
Glad lyric hail, and sonnet-thought adorn,
The changeful rivulet from stone to stone
Enchanted into anthems of its own.

My travel then! my wealth, my dream, my love,
True Golden Treasury and Golden Grove!
Accept one weakness, let one pale shade cling
Where with so strong a life you run and sing.





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