Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COMPLAINT OF FORGETTING THE DEAD, by JULES LAFORGUE



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COMPLAINT OF FORGETTING THE DEAD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ladies and gentlemen / whose mothers are dead
Last Line: They go. ...
Subject(s): Death; Forgetfulness; Graves; Sleep; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones


Ladies and gentlemen
Whose mothers are dead,
There's the good grave-sped
At your door again.

The dead
Are under ground;
They seldom
Get around.

You reek in your bocks,
You pay a romance that dried,
Down there crow the cocks,
Poor dead of the countryside!

Grandpa's there sitting
Finger at his brow,
Mother—sister's knitting—
Raises the lamp now.

The dead ...
No word outpours;
They sleep
Too out-of-doors.

Have you had your barleycorn?
Did you make a touch?
The tiny stillborn
Don't indulge very much.

With steady hand jot it all
In the cash book; there's room
Between these items of your ball:
Upkeep of mass, and tomb.

It's a gay
Life, hey,
Sweetheart?
I'll say!

Ladies and gentlemen
Whose sisters are dead,
Open for the grave-sped
At your door again;

If you are aversed,
He'll come, forgiving, but soon
To drag you out feet first
Some night at full o' the moon!

Importunate winds
That blow!
The deceased?
They go. ...





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net