Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TWO GRAVES, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO GRAVES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: It glooms forlornly 'mid wan ocean dunes
Last Line: The unborn soul of resurrection day?
Subject(s): Graves; Tombs; Tombstones


I.

IT glooms forlornly 'mid wan ocean dunes,
A desolate grave-mound on a dreary lea,
Touched by sad splendors of gray-misted moons,
Or veiled by shivering spray-drifts from the sea.

There, all unmarked, the dim days come and go;
No tender hand renews its crumbling turf,
On which the o'erwearied sea-winds faintly blow,
Blent with far murmurings of the mournful surf.

Vaguely the uncompanioned hours flit by,
Wrapped in pale clouds that sometimes mutely sweep
Some ghost of Lethe haunts that hollow sky,
Where even the doubtful noontides seem asleep,

Save when autumnal tempests fiercely rise,
Baring the harbor-mouth's black teeth of rocks,
And like a Maenad, with wild hair and eyes,
Raves from the North the infuriate Equinox.

II.

Here, peace divine, o'er glimmering grove and grass,
Hallows the sunshine in the noon's warm lull;
Ethereal shadows gently pause, or pass,
Flecking with gold the hill-slope beautiful.

This grave, all wreathed with flowers and glad with spring
Looks skyward like a half-veiled, museful eye,
Which answers subtly while the woodbirds sing
Heaven's smile of forecast immortality.

Can deathly dust pervade a spot so sweet?
Or hath the form it guarded stolen away,
And ere its hour of ransom, gone to meet
The unborn soul of Resurrection Day?





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