Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DO NOT BELIEVE, by EMILE DESCHAMPS DE SAINT AMAND


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DO NOT BELIEVE, by                    
First Line: Lady, they will tell you, 'you are foolish to believe him!
Last Line: But weep above my idle lute and loosen all the strings.
Alternate Author Name(s): Deschamps, Emile
Subject(s): Grief; Poetry & Poets; Sorrow; Sadness


LADY, they will tell you, "You are foolish to believe him!
Why then will you suffer more than he for all his grief?
A poet, all his sorrow fades away as words relieve him;
His sighs are spent in cadences, he sings for his relief.

"You leave him and he languishes, he dies ... until to-morrow,
And then with his belovéd art rebuilds the world aright.
He finds in your dear absence an excuse for mimic sorrow,
And drives away dark sorrow's self by singing of his plight."

Yes, that is what they'll tell you, happy in their disesteeming
The arts they do not understand, the friendship they deny.
But you,—will you believe them in their pitiless blaspheming
That will not grant a groat of worth to writers such as I?

Ah, no! it is not sorrow that gives music to the poet;
But for the scent of roses and the charm of smiles he sings;
For when my heart cries out, alas! I have no speech to show it,
But weep above my idle lute and loosen all the strings.





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