Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A MEMORY, by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL Poet's Biography First Line: Upon the barren, lonely hill Last Line: I walked with angels on the hill. Alternate Author Name(s): Hedbrooke, Andrew Subject(s): Past; Faces | ||||||||
UPON the barren, lonely hill We sat to watch the sinking sun; Below, the land grew dim and still, Whose evening shadow had begun. Her finger parted the shut book, -- At "Aylmer's Field" the leaf was turned, -- Round her meek head and sainted look The sunset like a halo burned. She knew not that I watched her face -- Her spirit through her eyes was gone To some far-off and Sabbath place, And left me gazing there alone. Could she have known, that quiet hour, What ghosts her presence raised in me, What graves were opened by the power Of that unconscious witchery, She would not thus have sat and seen The bird that balanced far below On the blue air, and watched the sheen Along his broad wings come and go. For was she not another's bride? And I -- what right had I to feast Upon those eyes in revery wide, With hungering gaze like famished beast? Was it before my fate I knelt -- The human fate, the mighty law -- To hunger for the heart I felt, And love the lovely face I saw? Or was it only that the brow, Or some sweet trick of hand or tone, Brought from the past to haunt me now Her ghost whose love was mine alone? I know not; but we went to rest That eve, from songs that haunt me still, And all night long, in visions blest, I walked with angels on the hill. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHEN WE LOOK UP by DENISE LEVERTOV HISTORY OF MY FACE by KHALED MATTAWA WOMAN IN FRONT OF POSTER OF HERSELF by ALICE NOTLEY THE HOUSE OF DUST: 1 by CONRAD AIKEN LOOKING AT AGING FACES by ROBERT BLY WHAT MAKES THIS STATUE NOBLE SEEMING by KENNETH KOCH A MORNING THOUGHT by EDWARD ROWLAND SILL |
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