Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NEVER, by AFANASI AFANASIEVICH FET First Line: I am awake. A coffin-lid. I strain Last Line: And take my corpse into eternity! Alternate Author Name(s): Foeth, Afanasy Afanasyveicht; Fet, Afanasy | ||||||||
I AM awake.... A coffin-lid.... I strain To lift my hands from it in violent shaking. I cry for help. I call to mind the pain That I endured at death, -- but now I'm waking! Like cobwebs, easily the lid unrolled I push aside, and leave my house of mould. I stand, -- all blinded by the gleaming snow. Beyond all doubting, breaks the vault asunder. I see the frost. No door keeps me below. I shall go home. How great will be the wonder! I know the park. I cannot miss the way. But strange it looks to me, and changed, to-day.... I run through snow. Into the air profound Stretch unmoved boughs from trees decayed and hoary; No track, no echo. Silence all around, As in Death's kingdom in a world of story. There is the house.... In desolation, all! My outstretched arms in stupefaction fall. The village sleeps in a dumb sheet of snow, By endless, pathless, desolate plains surrounded. Yes, so it is! That distant hill I know, The church on it where once the bells' peal sounded. And as a traveller, dead and frozen, lies, It shows its outline to the cloudless skies. Upon the snow no moth, no winter bird. I see it all! The earth has long been cold And dead. Then, why should still be heard Breath in my breast? Why did the grave unfold To give me back again? My consciousness Is bound -- to what? and what does it confess? Nowhere to go, and no one to embrace, Where Time has vanished into endless vastness! O Death, return, and gather the last trace Of life's predestined burden to thy fastness! And thou, Earth's frozen body, onward fly And take my corpse into eternity! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PRISONER by AFANASI AFANASIEVICH FET TO THE STARS THAT HAVE GONE OUT by AFANASI AFANASIEVICH FET THE NEW APOCRYPHA: THE FIG TREE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 25. ENVY ACCOMPANIES LOVE by PHILIP AYRES THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 51. FAREWELL TO JULIET (13) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT HOME, SWEET HOME WITH VARIATIONS: 3. FRANCIS BRET HARTE by HENRY CUYLER BUNNER FORLORN, MY LOVE by ROBERT BURNS QUATRAIN: ROME by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN REMEMBERING by GLENN CLAIRMONTE |
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