Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RISE NOW, by JOHN FREEMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RISE NOW, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rise now, an end to rest. The wind sighs / from the west
Last Line: On boughs that tap the pane thy soft farewell to speak.
Subject(s): Memory; Past; Shadows


RISE now, an end to rest. The wind sighs from the West
With all things tenderest, and whispers, Go!
Shadow with lifted finger bids thee no more linger,
The owl is only singer with painful note and slow.
Gone are those fire-breathed hues, and thickly fall the dews
Unsparkling. Dost thou muse on days far off and fair?
Save the brushing boughs upon this lampless house
Is movement none to rouse the slow unwinged air.
Now from familiar rooms into unfooted glooms
Where shadow hugest looms, pass dreadless on thy way.
Ah, how the dry stairs creak and gentle echoes speak,
How things remembered seek thy fond step to stay!
How oft thy idle hand from stair to door hath spanned,
How oft here didst thou stand and snuff the night!
It was thy passage wore these steps down to the door,
Thy foot on the loud floor, and hark, the cricket sings.
Now the hinges groan in muffled grumbling tone,
Even as in childhood known: the slow door swings.
—Yes, leave the door ajar, only some late-risen star
From heavenly hollows far will slant her silvering light:
Nought else will enter ... O, what shape is that, bent low
And stark, and silent so? Nay, 'tis but hunted Fear.
That was his breath she heard when from the thorn-bush stirred
Wings of a startled bird and fluttered here.

Now house and garden gone, into the deep unknown
Pass, and pass alone. Some greenwood road, maybe,
Thy stumbling foot will find, in age forgot designed,
Some star or murmuring wind awake and company thee.
Old memories will pursue thy path the forest through,
Murmuring, "O, not adieu!" and wild lips seek
Farewell from thine, in vain; for there is only rain
On boughs that tap the pane thy soft farewell to speak.





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