Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. ONE AT A TIME, by EDWARD CARPENTER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. ONE AT A TIME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A million faces, loves, bodies, lives - a million souls
Last Line: And love, the lord of all, shall dwell between us.
Subject(s): Togetherness; Universe


A MILLION faces, loves, bodies, lives—a million souls,
Pouring down Time—
As in a dream I see, and know my own.
All nations, classes, trades, ranks, temperaments,
[The soldier's cap, the felon's crop, the bishop's mitre,
Under the eyelids of the peasant woman, beneath the burnous of the Arab
chieftain,]
A million souls, yet from the rest at once distinguished—by the first
glance revealed—
I see, and know my own.

[Nay through the ages, loved ones, true to you,
Inseparable at heart I still remain,
Nor doubt you for an instant, nor myself.]

But here, to-day, may-be of all One only
The hour, the strict Eternity of Time,
Presents—and I accept.
May-be the least, unworthiest as the world would say,
Yet even so sufficient—for blest the hour
Which brings what, else, Eternity would miss!
Another day the worthiest may claim me;
To-day we two alone will be the world:
And Love, the Lord of all, shall dwell between us.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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