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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PICTURES ON ENAMEL, by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: When astraled was lying, like to die Last Line: Was gone beyond the hills upon his battle-steed. Subject(s): Knights & Knighthood; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Male-female Relations | |||
WHEN Astraled was lying, like to die Of love's green sickness, all his bed was strown With buds of crocus and anemone, For other flowers yet were barely none, And these he loved. And so it came to pass That, when they deemed he slept, then one by one The watchers left him for the Candlemas; And thus he chanced upon his bed alone When the day broke. You might have deemed he was An image of Hope slain by drear Oblivion. The chamber where he lay was hushed as sorrow, Which is joy's anteroom. The holy night, In silent expectation of the morrow, Gazed on the moon, as some fair anchorite On her own chastity, until the sight Made her heart ache. But, as the morning broke, Down the dim lobby came Somandolin, With her thick hair around her like a cloak, Even to her feet. I wot she might have been The dawn's own sister. Clad in mystic white, More beautiful than awe, came that fair woman in. Long while she stood before the dreaming boy, Still as he lay on crimson cushions piled. And when she bent o'er him, her breath did toy With his dank hair. Long while she stood and smiled As smiled Elisha on the widow's child In Shunam. For although her lips were sad As a broken bow, if you had read their meaning You would have learned the sense that smiling had Was less of sorrow than of joy beguiled To grief at the sad world and its revealing, As when the name of Death is whispered to a child. Doubtless that lady knew the spell to win The life-blood back; for, when she bent her down And laid her cheek to his that was so thin, The shut lips quivered and let fall a moan, As in sweet pain. And next Somandolin Put her white hand upon the sleeper's arm Entangled in his tresses. She could feel The curls crisp back like leaves when they grow warm Before a watchfire. Then she took his chin In her two palms, and bade his eyes unseal Their close-shut lids, and laid her lips upon his own. Slowly, as in a trance of wonderment, Those blue eyes opened wide, as from the dead His spirit stole. Old memories came and went Like summer lightnings, and a murmur sped To his dull ear, until he deemed it said, In a new tongue which none might heed but he, "Arise and worship, for behold thy bed And all about thee is as holy ground!" And then he cried, "Behold, dear love, I rise!" And on a sudden, waking from his swound, A countenance of tearful majesty And strange ecstatic love looked in his eyes. These things were written for a mystery In the Book of Life, lest lovers in their need Should faint for hunger by the road and die. Thus were they written. Though a god should read, He could not choose but learn a newer creed, Transcending his own knowledge. For anon, The Mass being ended, came the rest with speed, Bearing with them the blest viaticum And holy oils, nor guessed he needed not, Who sought him a long hour. The warder told Erewhile a knight, belike Sir Astraled, With a white lady rode the castle out, And all his harness was of burnished gold, Who, pricking fast towards the rising sun, Was gone beyond the hills upon his battle-steed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MISERY AND SPLENDOR by ROBERT HASS THE APPLE TREES AT OLEMA by ROBERT HASS DOUBLE SONNET by ANTHONY HECHT CONDITIONS XXI by ESSEX HEMPHILL CALIFORNIA SORROW: MOUNTAIN VIEW by MARY KINZIE SUPERBIA: A TRIUMPH WITH NO TRAIN by MARY KINZIE COUNSEL TO UNREASON by LEONIE ADAMS TWENTY QUESTIONS by DAVID LEHMAN ESTHER; A YOUNG MAN'S TRAGEDY: 50 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT ESTHER; A YOUNG MAN'S TRAGEDY: 51 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 110. THE OASIS OF SIDI KHALED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |
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