Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON ONE WHO DIED IN MAY, by CLARENCE CHATHAM COOK First Line: Why, death, what dost thou here Last Line: And burns a steadfast star to steadfast eyes. | ||||||||
WHY, Death, what dost thou here, This time o' year? Peach-blow and apple-blossom; Clouds, white as my love's bosom; Warm wind o' the west Cradling the robin's nest; Young meadows hasting their green laps to fill With golden dandelion and daffodil: These are fit sights for spring; But, oh, thou hateful thing, What dost thou here? Why, Death, what dost thou here, This time o' year? Fair, at the old oak's knee, The young anemone; Fair, the plash places set With dog-tooth violet: The first sloop-sail, The shad-flower pale; Sweet are all sights, Sweet are all sounds of spring; But thou, thou ugly thing, What dost thou here? Dark Death let fall a tear. Way am I here? Oh, heart ungrateful! Will man never know I am his friend, nor ever was his foe? Whose the sweet season, if it be not mine? Mine, not the bobolinks, that song divine, Chasing the shadows o'er the flying wheat! 'T is a dead voice, not his, that sounds so sweet. Whose passionate heart burns in this flaming rose But his, whose passionate heart long since lay still? Whose wan hope pales this snowlike lily tall, Beside the garden wall, But his whose radiant eyes and lily grace Sleep in the grave that crowns you tufted hill? All hope, all memory, Have their deep springs in me; And love, that else might fade, By me immortal made, Spurns at the grave, leaps to the welcoming skies, And burns a steadfast star to steadfast eyes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT DOES A WOMAN WANT? by KAREN SWENSON SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 15. ONE NIGHT WITH THEE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE MAID VAR MY BRIDE by WILLIAM BARNES THE PALACE OF OMARTES by EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON |
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