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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
REINCARNATE, by LILLIAN BARNES LONG
First Line: From sky to sky a silent land
Last Line: I won or lost a world.
Subject(s): Wellesley College
First Line: From sky to sky a silent land
Last Line: I won or lost a world.
Subject(s): Wellesley College
FROM sky to sky a silent land,
Through which an idle river flows,
Upon its banks, on either hand,
The purple iris blows.
The sunlight fades in languorous stream,
The sunlight fades in empty air --
A long, slant, timeless, yellow gleam
On all, and everywhere.
A long, slant, timeless, yellow ray,
On which I look, in which I sow --
What seed, O Soul, that fills to-day
With ghosts of Long Ago?
With ghosts of old Egyptian sand,
Where Nilus oozes home to sea,
With half-built pyramids, that stand
And frown through time on me?
For was I slave, or was I king,
I only, wandering, startled, know
(Let long, slant suns be quivering)
Such lights were long ago, --
Were long ago, and crept and twined
About my soul, and coiled and curled,
When in some dead Deed out of mind
I won or lost a world.
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