Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ARTHUR AND HELEN HALLAM; IN MEMORIAM, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A brother and a sister, - these two friends Last Line: But that they linger still so far behind. Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord Subject(s): Death; Hallam, Arthur Henry (1811-1833); Hallam, Helen; Dead, The | ||||||||
A BROTHER and a Sister, -- these two Friends, Cast by fond Nature in one common mould, And waited on by genial circumstance In all their history of familiar love, After a parting of not quite four years, Are peacefully united here once more. He first, as best beseemed the manly mind, Tried the dark wall, which has (or seems to have) No portion in the pleasant sun or stars, The breath of flowers or morning-song of birds, The hand of Friendship or the lips of Love. Whether her sad and separated soul Received some token from that secret place, That she might follow him and meet him there, Or whether God, displeased that anything Of good or evil should so long divide Such undefiled and sacred sympathies, Has made them one again before his face, Are things that we perhaps shall never know. Say not, O world of short and broken sight! That these died young: the bee and butterfly Live longer in one active sunny hour Than the poor tortoise in his torpid years: The lofty flights of Thought through clear and cloud -- The labyrinthine ways that Poesy Leads her beloved, the weary traverses Of Reason, and the haven of calm Faith, All had been theirs; their seamless brows had known The seal of pain, the sacrament of tears; And, unless Pride and Passion and bold Sin Are all the rule and reckoning of our Being, They have fulfilled as large a task of life As ever veteran on the mortal field. Thus they who gave these favoured creatures birth Deem it no hard infraction of the law Which regulates the order of our race, That they above their offspring raise the tomb, And with parental piety discharge The duties filial love delights to pay: They read the perfect sense of the design In that which seems exception, and they mourn, Not that these dear ones are already gone, But that they linger still so far behind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES |
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