Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: TO THE QUEEN OF SERPENTS, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: TO THE QUEEN OF SERPENTS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I trust that never more in this world's shade
Last Line: Kind offices to death.
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert
Subject(s): Netherlands; Travel; Holland; Dutch People; Journeys; Trips


I TRUST that never more in this world's shade
Thine eyes will be upon me: never more
Thy face come back to me. For thou hast made
My whole life sore:

And I might curse thee, if thou camest again
To mock me with the memory in thy face
Of days I would had been not. So much pain
Hath made me base --

Enough to wreak the wrath of years of wrong
Even on so frail and weak a thing as thou!
Fare hence, and be forgotten....Sing thy song,
And braid thy brow,

And be beloved, and beautiful, -- and be
In beauty baleful still...a Serpent Queen
To others not yet curst by kissing thee,
As I have been.

But come not nigh me till my end be near,
And I have turned a dying face toward heaven.
Then, if thou wilt, approach, -- and have no fear,
And be forgiven.

Close, if thou wilt, mine eyes, and smooth my hair:
Fond words will come upon my parting breath.
Nor, having desolated life, forbear
Kind offices to death.





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