Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CANDLE LIGHT, by JOHN COWPER POWYS Poet's Biography First Line: Hush, true love, as we sit and think Last Line: And we kiss by candle light! Subject(s): Candles; Love; Night; Sea; Soul; Wind; Winter; Bedtime; Ocean | ||||||||
Hush, true Love, as we sit and think And talk to shadows and watch the coals Redden up from beyond the brink Of the common reach of our souls. Do you not catch a cry in the air? No! That is the wind in the chimney calling! That is a curtain fluttering there! That is a dead branch falling! Burning wood when candles are lit Has a bitter-sweet breath that can carry far; That can carry two lovers from where they sit To the edge of the sea and over it Where the unknown islands are. Burning wood has a wizard spell Full of old sad stories and long-dead things; Like myrrh and cassia is that smell, From the sepulchres of kings. And whenever lovers like you and me Sit together of a winter's night, There's a cry on the wind, there's a cry on the sea, There's a tongue in the candlelight. And a great host gathers out of the dark From wild far places, from sunk sea-walls, From fallen roofs where hyaenas bark, From ruined tents and kraals. It gathers towards us while you and I Talk to old shadows and sit and stare, And let time and space and the world go by Like smoke upon the air. And as we gaze at the reddening coals Lost in that amorous host are we; That vast procession of lovers' souls Drowns our identity. A procession, divided like Plato's dream, But rushing together on a winter's night, When the casement shakes and the red coals gleam And we kiss by candle light! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS |
|