Classic and Contemporary Poetry
COMPLAINT OF FORGETTING THE DEAD, by JULES LAFORGUE 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, Mothersister'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...THE SURVIVOR AMONG GRAVES by RANDALL JARRELL SUBJECTED EARTH by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE GRAVE OF MRS. HEMANS by CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER THOSE GRAVES IN ROME by LARRY LEVIS NOT TO BE DWELLED ON by HEATHER MCHUGH ONE LAST DRAW OF THE PIPE by PAUL MULDOON ETRUSCAN TOMB by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS ENDING WITH A LINE FROM LEAR by MARVIN BELL |
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