Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE AUTHOR'S LAST WORDS TO HIS STUDENTS, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE AUTHOR'S LAST WORDS TO HIS STUDENTS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Forgive what I, adventuring highest themes
Last Line: The voice of your devotion.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): Teaching & Teachers; Tokyo Imperial University; Educators; Professors


FORGIVE what I, adventuring highest themes,
Have spoiled and darkened, and the awkward hand
That longed to point the moral of man's dreams
And shut the wicket-gates of fairyland:
So by too harsh intrusion
Left colourless confusion.

For even the glories that I most revered,
Seen through a gloomed perspective in strange mood,
Were not what to our British seers appeared;
I spoke of peace, I made a solitude,
Herding with deathless graces
My hobbling commonplaces.

Forgive that eyeless lethargy which chilled
Your ardours and I fear dimmed much fine gold --
What your bright passion, leaping ages, thrilled
To find and claim, and I yet dared withhold;
These and all chance offences
Against your finer senses.

And I will ever pray for your souls' health,
Remembering how, deep-tasked yet eager-eyed,
You loved imagination's commonwealth,
Following with smiling wonder a frail guide
Who bears beyond the ocean
The voice of your devotion.





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