Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNETS FOR LOST DIVINITIES, by WILLIAM E. SPENCER First Line: You are supreme mistress of counterpoint Last Line: Memorial to a moment, and a rose . . . Alternate Author Name(s): Faust, Henri Subject(s): Admiration | ||||||||
For Rachel You are supreme mistress of counterpoint: Gradations more subtle than we may know Shed their nuances in your voice and anoint Your suppliants with delights intense as slow; Somehow sombre, somehow suggesting pain, Yet does the sound of your melodies stir Our Western hearts and we grow young again -- Swart pagans come down from the Chaldees' Ur. Rachel, your eyes are cool shadowy brooks Of Hebron: tawny dreams of Palestine Stir in their windy deeps; you are what books Are all too coarse to say: in you we glean Strange delights of the primeval songs unsung When men walked in wonder and the earth was young. For Vivian You wore your beauty like a wanton's guise, You who were chaste and immanent with prayer, Nor ever guessed the perils of your eyes Soft with desire; a moment on the stair Of my rapt vision, poised so soon for flight, Hesitant you stood and at my plea swift turned, Tossing a rose -- then vanished in some height Of diffidence, where cooler ardors burned . . . Perhaps it is as well, for I can claim Throughout the crumbling of more constant urns, Perfection still, forever now the same, And kneel to it when disillusion burns -- While round me then a golden fragrance flows, Memorial to a moment, and a rose . . . | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EYE IN THE ROCK by JOHN HAINES SAN DIEGO AND MATISSE: 1. INSIDE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A TREE by CLARENCE MAJOR SAN DIEGO AND MATISSE: 2. OUTSIDE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A ROCKING... by CLARENCE MAJOR STREAK OF LIGHT by EAMON GRENNAN MARY DONNELLY by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM ON THE ROAD TO CHORRERA by ARLO BATES THE FOREST MAID by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY by GEORGE GORDON BYRON ASTRONOMERS by WILLIAM E. SPENCER |
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