Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LOVE'S HOUSE, by JOHN DRINKWATER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I know not how these men or those may take Last Line: Leans down to me and tells me everything. Subject(s): Houses; Love - Nature Of | ||||||||
I I KNOW not how these men or those may take Their first glad measure of love's character, Or whether one should let the summer make Love's festival, and one the falling year. I only know that in my prime of days When my young branches came to blossoming, You were the sign that loosed my lips in praise, You were the zeal that governed all my spring. II In prudent counsel many gathered near, Forewarning us of deft and secret snares That are love's use. We heard them as we hear The ticking of a clock upon the stairs. The troops of reason, careful to persuade, Blackened love's name, but love was more than these, For we had wills to venture unafraid The trouble of unnavigable seas. III Their word was but a barren seed that lies Undrawn of the sun's health and undesired, Because the habit of their hearts was wise, Because the wisdom of their tongues was tired. For in the smother of contentious pride, And in the fear of each tumultuous mood, Our love has kept serenely fortified And unusurped one stedfast solitude. IV Dark words, and hasty humours of the blood Have come to us and made no longer stay Than footprints of a bird upon the mud That in an hour the tide will take away. But not March weather over ploughlands blown, Nor cresses green upon their gravel bed, Are beautiful with the clean rigour grown Of quiet thought our love has piloted. V I sit before the hearths of many men, When speech goes gladly, eager to withhold No word at all, yet when I pass again The last of words is captive and untold. We talk together in love's house, and there No thought but seeks what counsel you may give, And every secret trouble from its lair Comes to your hand, no longer fugitive. VI I woo the world, with burning will to be Delighted in all fortune it may find, And still the strident dogs of jealousy Go mocking down the tunnels of my mind. Only for you my contemplation goes Clean as a god's, undarkened of pretence, Most happy when your garner overflows, Achieving in your prosperous diligence. VII When from the dusty corners of my brain Comes limping some ungainly word or deed, I know not if my dearest friend's disdain Be durable or brief, spent husk or seed. But your rebuke and that poor fault of mine Go straitly outcast, and we close the door, And I, no promise asking and no sign, Stand blameless in love's presence as before. VIII A beggar in the ditch, I stand and call My questions out upon the queer parade Of folk that hurry by, and one and all Go down the road with never answer made. I do not question love. I am a lord High at love's table, and the vigilant king, Unquestioned, from the hubbub at the board Leans down to me and tells me everything. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RESCUE THE DEAD by DAVID IGNATOW BUTTERFLIES UNDER PERSIMMON by MARK JARMAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 27 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 28 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 30 by JAMES JOYCE HE WHO KNOWS LOVE by ELSA BARKER LOVE'S HUMBLENESS by ELSA BARKER SONG (IN THE LUCKY CHANCE) by APHRA BEHN |
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