Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO KEEP OUR SCORN IMMORTAL by ROBIN LAMPSON

First Line: THIS DAY, SO CROWNED ABOVE ALL OTHER DAYS
Last Line: OUR SCORN OF DEATH IMMORTAL WHEN WE SLEEP?
This day, so crowned above all other days,
Becomes a challenge to the calendar,
A threat to Time and his destructive ways:

For we have taken a thing he can not mar
With change or death, nor steal from us again.
Deathless by this one perfect hour we are:

This little hour, beyond both joy and pain,
Has paid the subtle fee that bribes the Fates.
It does not matter now with what disdain

The snow of centuries blankets faded dates
Of kings and nations; nor for us how deep
And permanent the insensate Naught awaits:

Have we not this one timeless hour to keep
Our scorn of death immortal when we sleep?



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