Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AFTER FORTY YEARS, by PERCY STICKNEY GRANT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AFTER FORTY YEARS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have loved your face for many a year
Last Line: Alas! -- adieu!
Subject(s): Aging; Auctions; Portraits


I have loved your face for many a year,
My dear.
Your sweet girl face has never changed,
Nor your heart ranged,
Always the same
For me to claim
And always near.

Ours was a mercenary match.
They say I bought you.
I call you rather "a lucky catch."
You were knocked down -- I caught you.
No van nor villain gave the knock.
I grabbed you from an auction block.
A high-brow place for us to meet
In an art store on Tremont Street.
I was twenty -- you sixteen.
Another case of "might have been."
You were a peasant girl and I
"A judge" -- of what to buy.

Yes, I gave you all I had --
My own -- I dared not call on dad.
The bank cashier thought I was mad,
For I drew my last dollar.
How I trembled at each bid,
My rivals, with large bank accounts,
I glared at till they thought I'd pounce.
My fright by a grimace I hid,
As your price grew taller.
Had their bids gone a dollar higher,
You'd smile now by another's fire.

Now I am sixty, what of you?
Dear Viennese, child to my view?
If living, what? Did your sons fight
In the Great War? Your grandsons might.
Have they been starving? Have they been shot
For pleading for the common lot?
What terrors may have laid you low,
In a grave where myrtles grow. --
But the fair child is all I know.
Still from my walls
Sweetly your girl face calls,
For that is all I know of you --
Alas! -- adieu!





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