Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEATH, by JOHN COWPER POWYS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEATH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We toil and take our rest - we laugh and weep
Last Line: Dreams of strange regions, passing mortal taint.
Subject(s): Death; Dreams; Fates (mythology); Life; Love; Sleep; Dead, The; Nightmares


We toil and take our rest -- we laugh and weep,
Pine in our loves, and perish in our hates --
A little while we live, and then the Fates
Cover us gently with eternal sleep.
Ah, better so! Did kindly Death not keep
Open his sacred immemorial gates,
Bowed with the grief that wears, the joy that sates,
We men might ever in the low dust creep
Thro' life's dim paths unblessed by any star;
But at the touch of Death's celestial wings
Our loves loom larger and our hates wax faint,
For in Death's hand those deathless Mysteries are
That round our life with hints of heavenlier things,
Dreams of strange regions, passing mortal taint.





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