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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FOR OLIVER by HANIEL (CLARK) LONG

Poet Analysis

First Line: BRIGHT SUMMERS FADE, AND ALL BRIGHT FACES TOO
Last Line: AMONG THE DEATHLESS, WHOM THEY CALL THE DEAD.
Subject(s): DRAMATISTS; PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS ; POETRY & POETS; SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616); WAR; DRAMATISTS;

Bright summers fade, and all bright faces too.
It seems but yesterday beside the lake
You stretched your brown length in the sun to bake,
Or drove against the waves in your canoe.
That summer Shakespeare lived again in you.
You cried with him at Harfleur, Henry's speech,
"Once more, dear friends, once more into the breach!"
Each day you went as Shakespeare's heroes do.
So when the bright world darkened with a war
You, the adventurer of dreams, aroused
As one who recognized his hour, and sped
Into the danger's very heart and core.
And now, farewell! They tell me you are housed
Among the deathless, whom they call the dead.



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