Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ALTRUIST ORDER, SELECTION, by RENE GHIL First Line: He will not sleep, my child Last Line: May shine the radiant sun: mankind's first god! Subject(s): Babies; Home; Life; Mothers; Silence; Infants | ||||||||
He will not sleep, my child. ... my child will not sleep, and laughs! and holds to the light the clutching chance and first-born harmony of his artless gesture, that does not know its burden of so many an hereditary night and holds to the round light of the high sun his triumphant gesture of a being of the world! Your mother's coming, child, who gave you to life! to close the windows, heavy with a night of slow stirred atoms, slow blood! Ah! the night soft and low as quiet water, you do not knowhow far there spread the sorrow of your eyes, of unsatiated life, harsh effort! ... There is a boat (and high soars the high mast where he soon can spy!) there is but one boat on the sea where my love sails home to me. From tropic countries far (and high soars the high mast where he soon can spy!) from tropic lands so far away my lover's coming back to stay. From the sun of life (and high soars the high mast where he soon can spy!) from the sun your lover brings beams to gild your choicest things: and you will find him (with the aid of stars in the harbor-flow!) and you will find him all dismayed at thought of my far-off destiny. and even when death has come to me in the name of love, deep below my distant breast that sighs for him! But he will not sleep, my child ... my child will not sleep, and cries! and holds to the light he knows too wellthe imploring gesture of his dim exile on the waves of the void where desolately he must rove. ... Now open, curtains of the night! Mother of silence: that down the ways untrod between your fingers that in joy unite may shine the radiant sun: mankind's first god! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A POET TO HIS BABY SON by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON BABYHOOD by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN INFANCY by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG BALLAD OF THE LAYETTE by WAYNE KOESTENBAUM A TOAST FOR LITTLE IRON MIKE by PAUL MARIANI THE PAMPERING OF LEORA by THYLIAS MOSS ONE FOR ALL NEWBORNS by THYLIAS MOSS IN THE THRIVING SEASON by LISEL MUELLER THE STARS WENT OUT by RENE GHIL |
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