Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NAMELESS, by JOHN FREEMAN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NAMELESS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, lovely spirit, in the first fond dusk-light / gleaming
Last Line: And still death's old, shallow mock.
Subject(s): Death; Time; Dead, The


AH, lovely Spirit, in the first fond dusk-light gleaming,
In the first purple hue that cloaks the harsh uneasy coast,
Come near, cast off thy cloud, confront with thine my spirit,
Step from thy secret place, fern-hidden, dewsprent and moss'd,
Slide by Death's sentry ghost

And come. Only at evening, or at dun-feather'd fall of night,
When but the owl whimpers and wails over stooping graves
And sleepy bodies, only now may I see thee, putting by
Time's grossness, the body's lusts, the world that guiles and enslaves,
Pity that whines, pain that raves.

There where they sleep the wrinkled streets are silent as these
Green grass-ways of Death; spirit with laboured body hushes,
The wind hears no echo, the hound quails fearing to howl.—
Here, lovely Spirit, awake, part with thy pale hand the rushes
Where the winter-long wave yet gushes.

Distant by day art thou, even thy memory fades deceiving,
Images of thee tremble and hide in smiling women's eyes.
False every image: so February's bird deludes with Spring,
So even Spring nurses man's hope on ancient, wanton lies,
So mutters sleep false lullabies.

But thou, the Nameless, mortal-immortal, of earth and of heaven
Mistress, inheritor—come! Brush my lips with dew-shining lock.
Time bends low, a wan star sinking, thought neath its burden falls.
Smite, smite again, thou strong lovely Spirit, on earth's rooted rock,
And still Death's old, shallow mock.





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