Classic and Contemporary Poetry
REUNION, by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER Poet's Biography First Line: Beyond the end of the world Last Line: But after I shall turn, and hide my face. | ||||||||
Beyond the end of the world, There is a grey plain -- treeless, houseless, barren -- Where the souls of those departed Wait for the Judgment Day. The sun never shines there: All the day long the drizzling rain falls From the clouds chasing each other. Only sometimes at sunset Great red stormy gleams swirl upward, Shadows before God's face. And all day long the tired souls wander Over the stony ridges, down the grassless valleys; But in the night, by the banks of dim rivers, They crouch motionless, huddling their heads in their graveclothes, Soothing their souls with silent regret for life, While the smoke-black storm-clouds, swinging their wide banners headlong, Let fall through them greenish gleams of watery moonlight. There every river is bank-full of tears: Brackish, greyish water. There all day and all night the wind carries up through the air Voices, crying emptily to each other. The souls are weary of that place; They pray for life again with faint regret. But until man's will is broken, Until his desires fall like broken toys at his feet, Until God's judgment on time is accomplished, Until the stars are made new, They must abide and wait. Only sometimes through the dim night-season, And most of all in the hour before dawn, They see falling downwards through the air, The newly dead who come to them. Like whirling blue whisps of smoke In the ash-grey dawn light, The dead fall apart from the flying cloud-mass And are cast to the centre at hazard. This is the last place where we may meet; And should you come to me Out of the cloud, and I see you falling In the shape of one wrapt for burial, With shut eyes and motionless lips, Far from my weary feet; Perhaps for a little while I might desire to seek you, But after I shall turn, and hide my face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARIZONA POEMS: 4. THE WINDMILLS by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER ARIZONA POEMS: 6. RAIN IN THE DESERT by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 1. EMBARKATION by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 2. HEAT by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 3. FULL MOON by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 4. THE MOON'S ORCHESTRA by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 5. THE STEVEDORES by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 6. NIGHT LANDING by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 7. THE SILENCE by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER GREEN SYMPHONY by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER |
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