Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VIEWS, by FORD MADOX FORD Poet's Biography First Line: Being in rome I wonder will you go Last Line: When I may be your I, your rome my rome. Alternate Author Name(s): Hueffer, Ford Hermann; Hueffer, Ford Madox Subject(s): Love - Unrequited; Man-woman Relationships; Rome, Italy; Male-female Relations | ||||||||
I BEING in Rome I wonder will you go Up to the Hill. But I forget the name. ... Aventine? Pincio? No: I do not know. I was there yesterday and watched. You came. The seven Pillars of the Forum stand High, stained and pale 'neath the Italian heavens, Their capitals linked up form half a square; A grove of silver poplars spears the sky. You came. Do you remember? Yes, you came, But yesterday. Your dress just brushed the herbs That nearly hide the broken marble lion. ... And I was watching you against the sky. Such light! Such air! Such prism hues! and Rome So far below; I hardly knew the place. The domed St Peter's; mass of the Capitol; The arch of Trajan and St Angelo. ... Tiny and grey and level; tremulous Beneath a haze amidst a sea of plains. ... But I forget the name, who never looked On any Rome but this of unnamed hills. II Tho' you're in Rome you will not go, my You, Up to that Hill. ...but I forget the name, Aventine? Pincio? No, I never knew. ... I was there yesterday. You never came. I have that Rome; and you, you have a Me, You have a Rome and I, I have my You; My Rome is not your Rome: my you, not you ... For, if man knew woman I should have plumbed your heart; if woman, man Your me should be true I. ... If in your day You who have mingled with my soul in dreams, You who have given my life an aim and purpose, A heart, an imaged formif in your dreams You have imagined unfamiliar cities And me among them, I shall never stand Beneath your pillars or your poplar groves,... Images, simulacra, towns of dreams That never march upon each other's borders And bring no comfort to each other's hearts! III Nobly accompanied am ISince you, Yousimulacrum, image, dream of dreams, Amidst these images and simulacra Of shadowy house fronts and these dim, thronged streets Are my companion! Where the pavements gleam I have you alway with me: and grey dawns In the far skies bring you more nearmore near Than City sounds can interpenetrate. All vapours form a background for your face In this unreal town of real things, And my you stands beside me and makes glad All my imagined cities and thence walks Beside me towards yet unimagined hills. ... Being we two, full surely we shall go Up to that Hill . ... some synonym for Home. Avalon? Grave? or Heaven? I do not know. ... But one day or to-day, the day may come, When I may be your I, your Rome my Rome. | 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 |
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