Sidney Lanier (1842-1881 / Macon / Georgia)
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A Song Of Eternity In Time
Once, at night, in the manor wood
My Love and I long silent stood,
Amazed that any heavens could
Decree to part us, bitterly repining.
My Love, in aimless love and grief,
Reached forth and drew aside a leaf
That just above us played the thief
And stole our starlight that for us was shining.
A star that had remarked her pain
Shone straightway down that leafy lane,
And wrought his image, mirror-plain,
Within a tear that on her lash hung gleaming.
"Thus Time," I cried, "is but a tear
Some one hath wept 'twixt hope and fear,
Yet in his little lucent sphere
Our star of stars, Eternity, is beaming."
Read poems about / on: star, mirror, grief, fear, hope, pain, night, time, love, song
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I suppose twee nonsense is about it. The idea that a star' s mirror image would appear in a tear is a leeettle too much to believe - even if it had marked her pain!
It is so sad and beautiful at the sametime. Would be a good deep emotional poem for those who like poems with emotions.
Nature consoles whoever seeks it bosom grief stricken in life! The touching expression of the poem reveals the clear state of poet. Musing over Nature in loneliness what he has expressed in this poem is touching the heart of readers too!
This is prosodically a beautiful poem, but I am not sure how 'eternity' assuages the grief of real parting. Is 'the starlight' better than 'our starlight'?
Sidney, wherever you are reincarnated (or perhaps no longer by body encumbered)
God bless you for the beauty you spread.