Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON THE PRE-REFORMATION CHURCHES ABOUT OXFORD, by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Imperial iffley, cumnor bowered in green Last Line: "even here remember me when thou shalt reign." Subject(s): Churches; Oxford, England; Cathedrals | ||||||||
IMPERIAL Iffley, Cumnor bowered in green, And Templar Sandford in the boatman's call, And sweet-belled Appleton, and Wytham wall That doth upon adoring ivies lean; Meek Binsey; Dorchester where streams convene Bidding on graves her solemn shadow fall; Clear Cassington that soars perpetual; Holton and Hampton, and ye towers between: If one of all in your sad courts that come, Beloved and disparted! be your own, Kin to the souls ye had, while time endures, Known to each exiled, each estranged stone Home in the quarries of old Christendom, -- Ah, mark him: he will lay his cheek to yours. II Is this the end? is this the pilgrim's day For dread, for dereliction, and for tears? Rather, from grass and air and many spheres In prophecy his spirit sinks away; And under English eaves, more still than they, Far-off, incoming, wonderful, he hears The long-arrested and believing years Carry the sea-wall! Shall he, sighing, say, "Farewell to Faith, for she is dead at best Who had such beauty"? or with kisses lain For witness on her darkened doors, go by With a new psalm: "O banished light so nigh! Of them was I who bore thee and who blest; Even here remember me when thou shalt reign." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIRGIN IN GLASS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF: 3. FEEDING THE RABBITS by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR EXPLICATION OF AN IMAGINARY TEXT by JAMES GALVIN DOMESDAY BOOK: FATHER WHIMSETT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS HALF-AND-HALF by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE AT THE CHURCH DOOR by GEORGE SANTAYANA A FRIEND'S SONG FOR SIMOISIUS by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY |
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