Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THEY DID NOT KNOW, by ELIZABETH WELLS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THEY DID NOT KNOW, by                    
First Line: The styx is black, they say
Last Line: Where radiantly live the dead!
Subject(s): Charon; Hades; Wellesley College; Styx (river)


THE Styx is black, they say --
Ah heart, they did not know.
See yonder where its waters flow
In green and streaming gold away.

Yon barque with silver sail
And fair-haired boy at helm?
Why, Charon steers it to the realm
Of Pluto and the deathless vale.

Ah heart, thou needs't not fear!
Death is not harsh and old,
But ever young. He will enfold
You with his youth and call you dear.

And your swift boat will fly
Across the Styx, and there
In Hades you will find the fair
And brave. You need not fear to die.

The tired rest at last,
And Cerberus, the beast,
Snuffs gently at them while they feast,
Forgetting hungers of the past.

And these fair dead are kind,
Oh heart, their evil shed
With life. And lightly do they tread
The grasses waving in the wind.

The shades of Hell, they said,
Are black. They did not know.
Ah heart, you will not fear to go
Where radiantly live the dead!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net