Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WORDS OF PARTING, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WORDS OF PARTING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The words of parting in our english tongue
Last Line: Farewell, -- our very souls are in that cry!
Subject(s): Farewell; Language; Life; Love; Soul; Tears; Parting; Words; Vocabulary


THE words of parting in our English tongue
Are heavy-fraught with tenderness and tears:
We speak them first when life and love are young,
And then repeat them all the after years:
Good-by, Farewell, over and over again,
Old words of parting and of hidden pain!

Good-by, we call, and wave uncertain hands,
Farewell, and wonder shall we find some day
The friend who goes far forth to other lands,
The more-than-friend, whose steps must turn away.
Oh, the sweet kindnesses our tongues would tell,
Yet we can only say, Good-by, Farewell.

Sometimes the words seem light, and lips that smile
Do utter them, where jest and song are free;
Yet these same jesters, in a little while,
May speak their burden slow and solemnly:
Farewell, Good-by, the revel now is done,
We weep alone before the morrow's sun.

We build us homes, we strive for happiness,
So eager is our clinging and so sweet!
We lift strong barriers against distress,
But our Forevers are so frail, so fleet.
Good-by, Farewell, we say it, soon or late;
They are the syllables that spell our Fate.

The words of parting in our English speech
Are magical with meanings left unsaid;
Earth-warm they are, yet have a heavenly reach,
They sound above the living and the dead:
You hear our heart-beats in a brief Good-by;
Farewell, -- our very souls are in that cry!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net