Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONG OF THE TROUBADOUR, by J. R. PERRY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONG OF THE TROUBADOUR, by                    
First Line: Where is her lip's soft laugh to-night?
Last Line: My lips with a death-sad song.
Subject(s): Absence; Death; Hearts; Love - Loss Of; Old Age; Separation; Isolation; Dead, The


WHERE is her lip's soft laugh to-night?
Where is the mystical June?
They seem to have all disappeared to-night
In the dust of a death-pale moon!
A moon like the one that is sailing now
But free from its pale white hue,
Looked down on her window of latticed bars
Where her eyes watched, wet with dew.

But now, O God! They are closed in death—
She is shrouded, stiff and cold.
Can you wonder now that I hate this night?
Can you wonder my heart is old?
Her lips that I touched so tremblingly warm
Are frozen, have lost their rose!
Her white wan face like a flower pressed
Is stilled by the Black Death's throes!

By the moon-splashed palace wall one night,
With a wonderful magic around,
She laughingly whispered, "Some day I shall die."
With kisses I hushed the sound.
Then we laughed, we two, with care-free hearts
As light as the street bird's song;
But we did not know how near she was right
Our kisses how far they were wrong!

The guards have kept me away from her,
And I cannot see her face!
The gold of her kindred has barred my way,
Their gold and velvet and lace.
So I am doomed as a wandering bard,
And my way will be dark and long;
My heart will be filled with the hush of her breasts,
My lips with a death-sad song.





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