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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN, by JOHN COWPER POWYS Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, poet - you, who sing
Last Line: When they take away our tears.
Subject(s): Grief; Night; Poetry & Poets; Singing & Singers; Sleep; Tears; Sorrow; Sadness; Bedtime
First Line: Ah, poet - you, who sing
Last Line: When they take away our tears.
Subject(s): Grief; Night; Poetry & Poets; Singing & Singers; Sleep; Tears; Sorrow; Sadness; Bedtime
Ah, poet -- you, who sing
"The days that are no more" --
There is a bitterer sting
In the days that never were.
For lying alone in the night,
Hearing the wind at play,
I know such days to have been my right.
Yet they came and took them away.
I never knew them! They stole
The sorrow out of my sleep;
The crying out of my dreams.
I cannot even weep.
They came and took them -- they stole
The longing that was my right,
The grief that was my child.
They left me alone in the night.
"Never was" has a sharper sting
Than "No more", as roll the years;
And the gods take everything
When they take away our tears.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL
HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS
NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS
WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON
POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN
COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE
POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE
ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN