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Czeslaw Milosz (30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004 / Kedainiai)
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Song on The End of The World
On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A Fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it it should always be.
On the day the world ends
Women walk through fields under their umbrellas
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.
And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet,
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
No other end of the world there will be,
No other end of the world there will be.
Read poems about / on: snake, women, believe, rose, happy, world, moon, sea, sun, night, song, woman
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great poem. it deals with the common place activities of life in various fields of human existence untill the day the world ends. I must thank Mr Terence George Craddock for giving the precise background against which the poem was written.
One exquisite beautiful source of vision in the poem, 'Song on The End of The World' by Czeslaw Milosz, is a pure focus on nature, and human interaction with the beauty of nature on an individual level; eliminating all political influence and rendering the Christian Apocalypse to a moment of surprise.
This is all the more remarkable because Milosz spent World War II in Warsaw, under Nazi Germany's General Government, and must have witnessed some horrors of the Warsaw Uprising, from just outside the city. The influence of Milosz's belief in his principle, The Captive Mind seems in evidence in this poem.
There is no conflict, no violence, no repressive regime; only the purity of a universal desire for peace, harmony between humanity and nature, and the simple amazing prayer for peace, 'No other end of the world there will be'. The poem is composed in insightful, beautiful crisp delightful imagery, and is masterful in simplicity of expression.10+++
Great poem sorry. Mr Shiddiqi, Mr Milosz has ben dead a good few years! ! ! !
gorgeous! remain me of Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No.9, From the New World. keep writing! could you read and comment on my poems too? Thank you.
very nice read and write.
good depth.