Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FAERIE, by CHARLES WILLIAMS Poet's Biography First Line: Under the edge of midnight Last Line: And has this chanced to me? Subject(s): Death; Kisses; Love; Passion; Dead, The | ||||||||
UNDER the edge of midnight While my love is far away, A wind from the world of faerie Blows between day and day. And wandering thoughts possess me, Such as no wise man knows, Death and a thousand accidents, And high impossible woes. Whether now in her pastime She turned a little, sighed With the heaviness of breathing, And even in turning died: Or whether some cloud covers The lobes of the conscious brain And all that she knew aforetime She shall never know again, But her friends shall bring her to me, Bewildered and afraid Lest a stranger's hand should touch her, A shrinking alien maid, Yet such distress in patience And faith an end may find, And a more fantastic peril Moves in my dreaming mind: None knows how deep within us Lies hid a secret flaw, Where spins the mad world ever On the very edge of law. Under the chance that rules us Anarchic terrors stir, Lest what to me has happened Has never happened to her. First love in our first meeting, Changed eyes, and bridal vows, The incredible years together Lived in a single house, The kisses born of custom That are sweeter and stranger still Than any clasp of passion, And the shaping of one will, Was it some wraith deceived me, And lives she still apart In her father's house contented, With an unwakened heart? Now at this striking midnight Through the chink between day and day, Has a wind from the world of faerie Blown all my life away? Here am I now left naked Of the vapour that was she: While the true maid 'midst her kindred Has never thought of me? For ten long years together Can a thing be and not be, Till it ceases to be for ever, And has this chanced to me? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND FOR A CHILD: 1. WALKING SONG by CHARLES WILLIAMS TO MICHAL: SONNETS AFTER MARRIAGE: 8. AFTER RONSARD by CHARLES WILLIAMS |
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