Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A DEAD LETTER: 3, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DEAD LETTER: 3, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: This was the matter of the note
Last Line: Of john, I think, the better.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Letters


This was the matter of the note, --
A long-forgot deposit,
Dropped in an Indian dragon's throat,
Deep in a fragrant closet,

Piled with a dapper Dresden world, --
Beaux, beauties, prayers, and poses, --
Bonzes with squat legs undercurled,
And great jars filled with roses.

Ah, heart that wrote! Ah, lips that kissed!
You had no thought or presage
Into what keeping you dismissed
Your simple old-world message!

A reverent one. Though we to-day
Distrust beliefs and powers,
The artless, ageless things you say
Are fresh as May's own flowers,

Starring some pure primaeval spring,
Ere Gold had grown despotic, --
Ere Life was yet a selfish thing,
Or Love a mere exotic!

I need not search too much to find
Whose lot it was to send it,
That feel upon me yet the kind
Soft hand of her who penned it;

And see, through two score years of smoke,
In by-gone, quaint apparel,
Shine from yon time-black Norway oak
The face of Patience Caryl, --

The pale, smooth forehead, silver-tressed;
The grey gown, primly flowered;
The spotless, stately coif whose crest
Like Hector's horse-plume towered;

And still the sweet half-solemn look
Where some past thought was clinging,
As when one shuts a serious book
To hear the thrushes singing.

I kneel to you! Of those you were,
Whose kind old hearts grow mellow, --
Whose fair old faces grow more fair
As Point and Flanders yellow;

Whom some old store of garnered grief,
Their placid temples shading,
Crowns like a wreath of autumn leaf
With tender tints of fading.

Peace to your soul! You died unwed --
Despite this loving letter.
And what of John? The less that's said
Of John, I think, the better.





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