Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, JAMAIS, by JAMES RYDER RANDALL


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JAMAIS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Early love is swift and golden
Last Line: Bends to thee—jamais! Jamais!
Subject(s): Love - Complaints


EARLY love is swift and golden,
Fond and foolish, too, perchance,
But 'tis haloed by the olden,
Golden moonlight of romance.
Once its ripe aurelian bound me,
Brimful with the birds of May—
By the ruins that surround me,
In shall bind no more—Jamais!

Once I felt the blue above thee,
Peri-peopled by thine art;
But 'twas death in life to love thee,
Woman of the diamond heart!
Thou hast sown the sky with ashes,
Made its constellations gray,
While the wind-gust knells and gnashes
Dirge-like to the night—"Jamais!"

Though with purpose unbenighted,
Though with intellect unshorn,
Still my spirit, maimed and blighted,
Bleeds beyond its battle morn.
Herbless deserts, demon-haunted,
Mark the fury of the fray,
But that spirit, still undaunted,
Bends to thee—Jamais! Jamais!





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