Classic and Contemporary Poetry
UNRETURNING, by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD Poet's Biography First Line: Now all the flowers that ornament the grass Last Line: And the vast world beneath hides him from me! Alternate Author Name(s): Stoddard, Richard, Mrs. | ||||||||
Now all the flowers that ornament the grass, Wherever meadows are and placid brooks, Must fall -- the "glory of the grass" must fall. Year after year I see them sprout and spread, -- The golden, glossy, tossing buttercups, The tall, straight daisies and red clover globes, The swinging bellwort and the blue-eyed bent, With nameless plants as perfect in their hues, -- Perfect in root and branch, their plan of life, As if the intention of a soul were there: I see them flourish as I see them fall! But he, who once was growing with the grass, And blooming with the flowers, my little son, Fell, withered -- dead, nor has revived again! Perfect and lovely, needful to my sight, Why comes he not to ornament my days? The barren fields forget their barrenness, The soulless earth mates with these soulless things, Why should I not obtain my recompense? The budding spring should bring, or summer's prime, At least a vision of the vanished child, And let his heart commune with mine again, Though in a dream -- his life was but a dream; Then might I wait patient cheerfulness, That cheerfulness which keeps one's tears unshed, And blinds the eyes with pain -- the passage slow Of other seasons, and be still and cold As the earth is when shrouded in the snow, Or passive, like it, when the boughs are stripped In autumn, and the leaves roll everywhere. And he should go again; for winter's snows, And autumn's melancholy voice, in winds, In waters, and in woods, belong to me, -- To me, a faded soul; for, as I said, The sense of all his beauty, sweetness, comes When blossoms are the sweetest; when the sea, Sparkling and blue, cries to the sun in joy, Or, silent, pale, and misty waits the night, Till the moon, pushing through the veiling cloud, Hangs naked in its heaving solitude: When feathery pines wave up and down the shore, And the vast deep above holds gentle stars, And the vast world beneath hides him from me! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SEA-SIDE IDYL by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD A SUMMER NIGHT by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD IN THE STILL, STAR-LIT NIGHT by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD LAST DAYS by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD MERCEDES by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD NAMELESS PAIN by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD NOVEMBER by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD ON THE CAMPAGNA by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD THE HOUSE OF YOUTH by ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD |
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