Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SILENT SINGERS, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SILENT SINGERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And proserpine, still fragrant of the air
Last Line: But pluto's mouth, o mother proserpine!
Subject(s): Death; Goddesses & Gods; Hearts; Mythology; Singing & Singers; Tears; Dead, The


And Proserpine, still fragrant of the air
And upper brightness, bore him children -- him
Whose heart, not knowing Sicily, was bare
Of songs, whose sunless mouth was dumb. That grim
Illimitable cold was alien
Always; and always, hopeful of the song
Of birds, she leaned and thought to find again
Those blooms that watch the tearless stars so long
They weep. When to her kingdom came the dead,
Still glistening with tears and asphodel,
Forgetting all save home, their eyes she read,
Wherein the sweet, far earth seemed yet to dwell.

. . . . .

Behold, the blue South in our hearts like wine --
But Pluto's mouth, O Mother Proserpine!





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