NOT in the street and not in the square, The street and square where you went and came ; With shuttered casement your house stands bare, Men hush their voice when they speak your name. I, too, can play at the vain pretence, Can feign you dead ; while a voice sounds clear In the inmost depths of my heart : Go hence, Go, find your friend who is far from here. Not here, but somewhere where I can reach ! Can a man with motion, hearing and sight, And a thought that answered my thought and speech, Be utterly lost and vanished quite ? Whose hand was warm in my hand last week ? . . . My heart beat fast as I neared the gate -- Was it this I had come to seek, "A stone that stared with your name and date ;" A hideous, turfless, fresh-made mound ; A silence more cold than the wind that blew ? What had I lost, and what had I found ? My flowers that mocked me fell to the ground -- Then, and then only, my spirit knew. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOT SIX DIFFERENCES by MARVIN BELL GHOSTS OF A LUNATIC ASYLUM by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET BATTLE OF BRITAIN by CECIL DAY LEWIS SPRING BLIZZARD by JAMES GALVIN DEAD LEAVES by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON AFFIRMATION by LOUIS UNTERMEYER ST. FRANCIS EINSTEIN OF THE DAFFODILS (FIRST VERSION) by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS |