Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE SHADOW, by WILLIAM SHARP


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE SHADOW, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O she will have the deep dark heart, for all her face is fair
Last Line: A heaven of peace it is beside this mockery of a grave.
Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona
Subject(s): Advice; Despair; Love Affairs; Man-woman Relationships; Shadows; Unfaithfulness; Male-female Relations; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy


O she will have the deep dark heart, for all her face is fair;
As deep and dark as though beneath the shadow of her hair:
For in her hair a spirit dwells that no white spirit is,
And hell is in the hopeless heaven of that lost spirit's kiss.

She has two men within the palm, the hollow of her hand:
She takes their souls and blows them forth as idle drifted sand:
And one falls back upon her breast that is his quiet home,
And one goes out into the night and is as wind-blown foam.

And when she sees the sleep of one, ofttimes she rises there
And looks into the outer dark and calleth soft and fair:
And then the lost soul that afar within the dark doth roam
Comes laughing, laughing, laughing, and crying, Home! Home!

There is no home in faithless love, O fool that deems her fair:
Bitter and drear that home you seek, the name of it, Despair:
Drown, drown beneath the sterile kiss of the engulfing wave,
A heaven of peace it is beside this mockery of a grave.





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