Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PATH OF TEARS: 6. SUPPLICATION, by SAROJINI NAIDU


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PATH OF TEARS: 6. SUPPLICATION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Love, it were not such deep unmeasured wrong
Last Line: A gift of tears to save my stricken soul!
Subject(s): Compassion; Grief; Love; Tears; Sorrow; Sadness


LOVE, it were not such deep unmeasured wrong
To wreck my life of youth and all delight,
Bereave my days of sweetness and to blight
My hidden wells of slumber and of song,
Had your atoning mercy let me keep
For sole and sad possession to assuage
The loss of my heart's radiant heritage,
Power of such blessed tears as mortals weep.

But I, O Love, am like a withered leaf
Burnt in devouring noontides of distress
And tossed upon dim pools of weariness,
Mute to the winds of gladness or of grief.
The changing glory of the earth and skies
Kindles no answering tribute in my breast,
My loving dead go streamwards to their rest
Unhonoured by the homage of mine eyes.

Restore me not the rapture that is gone,
The hope forbidden and the dream denied,
The ruined purpose and the broken pride,
Lost kinship with the starlight and the dawn.
But you whose proud, predestined hands control
My springs of sorrow, ecstasy and power,
Grant in the brief compassion of an hour
A gift of tears to save my stricken soul!





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