Evenstar, still evenstar
If this twilight thou dost shine
On a more unhappy head,
On tears lonelier than mine,
Vainer prayers and deepest sighs,
Take, sweet spirit, thou that art
Comforter of our despairs
All the prayers perforce unsaid,
All the sighs I cannot sigh,
All the tears I cannot shed;
Fill his eyes and flood his heart,
Who, my everlasting kin,
Broods, afar, unknown, apart.
Bring, ah bring him that surcease
From unsolaceable pain,
Which nor prayers, nor tears, nor sighs,
No, nor even the divine
Presence of thy eternal peace
Can, O evenstar, make mine.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Many think there is an element of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder going on in this poem. Soldiers were indeed stress-tested until destruction. Robert Nichols said once, comparing before- and after-war poetry, “War has defiled one to produce the other.”