Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AFTER READING THE RUBAIYAT, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AFTER READING THE RUBAIYAT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Still burning, let me cast the cup of youth aside
Last Line: The blood of life's unraptured warriors.
Subject(s): Dreams; Life; Night; Youth; Nightmares; Bedtime


Still burning, let me cast the cup of youth aside,
Or else, with one deep, purple draught,
Crush it and toss its unregretted pieces wide
To windwards, and the latter days abide.

What if the spicery of summer be forspent,
And night's own argent madness gone?
The shining Bacchanal of youth was always rent
By cries the circling dark and stars had sent.

And tho' warm-lidded lechery was sweet, I knew
The discontent of higher dreams,
And how the red-lipped sweetness changed and staled and grew
A thing the dewy dancers feared to view.

O loveliest of all the wreathed revellers,
Break, break the cup, the wine forswear.
Courageous, thee and me a lordlier vintage stirs --
The blood of life's unraptured warriors.





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