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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LILIA'S TRESS, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: It failed, past misty distances Last Line: "a fearsome, weirdsome, faerie tress!" Subject(s): Hair | |||
It failed, past misty distances, That last ripe note! He gained the close And found the bird-soft little tress Thorned on a dreaming rose. "Then take my heart, oh amorous eyes, But wonder not that swift I follow!" A wing whirred past him to the skies As dawn waked thrush and swallow. "Oh bird in flight! ..." The courtyard rang As, thralled by dream, he stumbled past The drowsing watch. The great gates clang. He treads the moor at last. So say the little elfin men, Beguiling, slowly-smiling men, The little leaping, dancing men, The slyly necromancing men; So say the little elfin men, "For dream of Lilia, great distress. For clasp of Lilia, heathenesse And Lilia's tress ... no more, no less Than Lilia's eerie, faerie tress!" He held the dream before his eyes And her sweet language to his breast. "They lie! The token tracks the prize. Doth its discovery not attest That I should follow and be wise? "Suddenly by my couch I saw Her stand ... or was it some dear dream? So real did the vision seem I shook 'twixt ecstasy and awe! "Then peaceful arms of soft delight One moment clasped me. Eyes of dawn Drank of my soul.... I woke -- to night, To naught but night -- and found you gone! "Mountains are naught for me to scale Like as I climbed from casement-ledge And found -- this sign you will not fail -- Sweet gage, thorned to the rose's edge! "I follow! Be it night or morn I know not -- but I track my prize!" All for a tress the fairies mourn, All for two deep, unmortal eyes! All for a tress the fairies claim, Dogging the dreamer o'er the rim Of wastes where sound without a name Draws him through echoes of laughter dim: "Mate with your princess, crown her queen! Lilia, once by mortal men Hotly wooed and scorned, again Comes to harry chastest men, Break a heart as hers broke then, Giving ecstatic arms and lips To insure hope's dark eclipse, To insure all joy's eclipse! Hate for your Princess -- dule and teen!" The days and nights were not. His brain Whirled on ward 'round one dim refrain, "Will you not love me?" What now were Earth, Heaven, Hell, withouten her? Earth, Heaven, Hell but deserts bare Of one vast, voiceless, blank despair! Oh, blessed lightnings! Sheol rare! Chuckle the little elfin men, Deriding, woe-betiding men, The little finger-nosing men, The prophecy-unclosing men! Thus mock the little elfin men, "For dream of Lilia, great distress. For clasp of Lilia, desp' rateness. Give us the tress -- we crave no less! Ah, fool! beguiled by Lilia's tress." And so at last the world's edge came Upon him like a sword of flame. Far down the cloud-abyss below Cold, mocking laughter seemed to go. He saw white arms, a laughing eye, Two rose-leaf lips all pursed awry In an ill-willing, chilling cry. She vanished.... and he could not die! He cast the tress -- took paces three -- And saw it vanish utterly. Still do they point the blasted tree, That fallen oak upon the lea, That he uprooted frenziedly. And they will show the rocks he brake, The fissures that his heels did make, The stones he crumbled, flake by flake. That morning by the lapping moat They found him mumbling things by rote. He flew at his betrothed's throat. So say the little elfin men, Beguiling, slowly-smiling men, The little leaping, dancing men, The slyly necromancing men; So say the little elfin men, "For dream of Lilia, great distress. For clasp of Lilia, heathenesse. For Lilia's tress -- Hell-fire, we guess! A fearsome, weirdsome, faerie tress!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PORTRAIT WITH BROWN HAIR by DONALD JUSTICE OPENING HER JEWEL BOX by WILLIAM MATTHEWS THE BLONDE SONATA by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS THE SONG CALLED HIS HIDE IS COVERED WITH HAIR by HILAIRE BELLOC THE WOMEN WITH FABLED HAIR by MADELINE DEFREES DECRYPTING THE MESSAGE by EDWARD FIELD THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |
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