Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A SONG OF EIGHTEEN, by DIGBY MACKWORTH DOLBEN Poet's Biography First Line: Strain them, o winds, the sails of the years Last Line: Till the age her times fulfil. Alternate Author Name(s): Dolben, Digby Augustus Stewart Mackworth Subject(s): Youth | ||||||||
STRAIN them, O winds, the sails of the years, Outspread on the mystic sea; Faster and faster, for laughter or tears, O bear my story to me! Waft it, O Love, on thy purple wings, The dawn is breaking to pass: Strike it, O Life, from thy deeper strings, And drown the music that was. Yet lovely the tremulous haze That curtained the dreamful afar, Thro' the which some face, like a star, Would lighten, too sudden for praise. And white were our loves on their way As morn on the hills of the south; The kisses that rounded their mouth As fresh as the grasses in May. They passed; but the silvery pain Of our tears was easily told, -- For the day but an hour was old, At noon we should meet them again. Weary am I of ideal and of mist, The shroud of life that is dead; -- And, as the passionate sculptor who kissed The lips of marble to red, Ask I a breath that is part of my own, Yet drawn from a soul more sweet; -- Or, as the shaft that upsoareth alone Undiademed, incomplete, Claim I the glory predestined to me In the Mother Builder's will, Portion and place in the Temple to be Till the age her times fulfil. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BETWEEN THE WARS by ROBERT HASS THE GOLDEN SHOVEL by TERRANCE HAYES ALONG WITH YOUTH by ERNEST HEMINGWAY THE BLACK RIVIERA by MARK JARMAN A LETTER by DIGBY MACKWORTH DOLBEN |
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