Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RESIGNATION, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RESIGNATION, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Live in that land, fair spirit and my friend
Last Line: That palest face among them was my love.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund


LIVE in that land, fair spirit and my friend,
Which you are wealthy in, where your estate
Ripples in wheat and sunshine without end,
And wood-rides never reach the glittering gate,
Where fall the nymphal rills
Down sunny hills;
And shepherds there sit playing
"Corinna's gone a-Maying" --
O ever may your rills like lovesongs run,
And each green height allure some shining One.

With that, your cities twinkle through warm miles
Of pastoral blue, and you at one thought move
Where blest bells chant and antique order smiles,
And love peeps down from airy nooks, your love.
Her flowery lattice soon
Beneath the moon
May lodge the owl tu-whooing,
For she'll have stolen a-wooing,
And where through dragon throats the spring leaps clear
Be whispering lest a wide-eyed rose should hear.

This was my country, and it may be yet,
But something flew between me and the sun;
The gnawed reeds blacken, the thinned poplars fret,
Leaves loll, would wake, and with a thrill are gone.
The city faces stare
Across the square
Where the burnt spire of vision
Hangs in hurt indecision;
They guess strange menace where old safety throve,
That palest face among them was my love.





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