Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LAST PROPHECY OF CASSANDRA, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The sun is fading in the skies Last Line: Or scare the wild bird from her sleep. | ||||||||
THE sun is fading in the skies, And evening shades are gathering fast; Eair city, ere that sun shall rise, Thy night hath come, -- thy day is past! Ye know not, -- but the hour is night; Ye will not heed the warning breath; No vision strikes your clouded eye, To break the sleep that wakes in death. Go, age, and let thy withered cheek Be wet once more with freezing tears; And bid thy trembling sorrows speak, In accents of departed years. Go, child, and pour thy sinless prayer Before the everlasting throne; And He, who sits in glory there, May stoop to hear thy silver tone. Go, warrior, in thy glittering steel, And bow thee at the altar's side; And bid thy frowning gods reveal The doom their mystic counsels hide. Go, maiden, in thy flowing veil, And bare thy brow, and bend thy knee; When the last hopes of mercy fail, Thy God may yet remember thee. Go, as thou didst in happier hours, And lay thine incense on the shrine; And greener leaves, and fairer flowers, Around the sacred image twine. I saw them rise, -- the buried dead, -- From marble tomb and grassy mound; I heard the spirits' printless tread, And voices not of earthly sound. I looked upon the quivering stream, And its cold wave was bright with flame; And wild, as from a fearful dream, The wasted forms of battle came. Ye will not hear, -- ye will not know, -- Ye scorn the maniac's idle song; Ye care not! but the voice of woe Shall thunder loud, and echo long. Blood shall be in your marble halls, And spears shall glance, and fire shall glow; Ruin shall sit upon your walls, But ye shall lie in death below. Ay, none shall live, to hear the storm Around their blackened pillars sweep; To shudder at the reptile's form, Or scare the wild bird from her sleep. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SEA DIALOGUE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A SUN-DAY HYMN [OR LAMENT] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AFTER A LECTURE ON KEATS by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BILL AND JOE by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BIRTHDAY OF DANIEL WEBSTER by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BOSTON COMMON: 1630 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BOSTON COMMON: 1774 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BOSTON COMMON: 1869 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES BROTHER JONATHAN'S LAMENT FOR SISTER CAROLINE [DECEMBER 2O, 1860] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES CACOETHES SCRIBENDI by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
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