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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO MEMORY, by EDWARD BLISS REED
First Line: Pale wistful dreamer, brooding o'er the past
Last Line: I shall not stoop o'er embers. With the dawn scatter the ashes wide!
Subject(s): Memory
First Line: Pale wistful dreamer, brooding o'er the past
Last Line: I shall not stoop o'er embers. With the dawn scatter the ashes wide!
Subject(s): Memory
Pale wistful dreamer, brooding o'er the past,
Listening to dying music far away,
Rest in your twilight home where burn the last
Faint, smouldering fires of day.
I never ask to hear your footstep light
Upon the door-sill of my peaceful hall,
Nor listen at my window in the night
For your soft murmuring call.
I know your message; I have found earth sweet
As new-mown meadows or the balsam's breath;
Life, rich with brave friends; gay, with children's feet—
To dream on this is death.
For as this earth whirls ceaselessly through space
So man, earth's child, must never rest; and when
The past allures, must know his fairest place Shines just beyond his ken.
At night when all the guests have supped and gone,
The fire they circled on the hearth has died,
I shall not stoop o'er embers. With the dawn Scatter the ashes wide!
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