Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, JOHN JONES: 1. AT THE PIANO, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

JOHN JONES: 1. AT THE PIANO, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Love me and leave me; what love bids retrieve me? Can june's first grasp may?
Last Line: Love me and save me, take me or waive me; death takes one so soon!
Subject(s): Death; Love; Time; Dead, The


I.

LOVE me and leave me; what love bids retrieve me? can June's fist grasp May?
Leave me and love me; hopes eyed once above me like spring's sprouts, decay;
Fall as the snow falls, when summer leaves grow false -- cards packed for
storm's play!

II.

Nay, say Decay's self be but last May's elf, wing shifted, eye sheathed --
Changeling in April's crib rocked, who lets 'scape rills locked fast since frost
breathed --
Skin cast (think!) adder-like, now bloom bursts bladder-like, -- bloom frost
bequeathed?

III.

Ah, how can fear sit and hear as love hears it grief's heart's cracked grate's
screech?
Chance lets the gate sway that opens on hate's way and shews on shame's beach
Crouched like an imp sly change watch sweet love's shrimps lie, a toothful in
each.

IV.

Time feels his tooth slip on husks wet from Truth's lip, which drops them and
grins --
Shells where no throb stirs of life left in lobsters since joy thrilled their
fins --
Hues of the prawn's tail or comb that makes dawn stale, so red for our sins!

V.

Years blind and deaf use the soul's joys as refuse, heart's peace as manure,
Reared whence, next June's rose shall bloom where our moons rose last year, just
as pure:
Moons' ends match roses' ends: men by beasts' noses' ends mete sin's stink's
cure.

VI.

Leaves love last year smelt now feel dead love's tears melt -- flies caught in
time's mesh!
Salt are the dews in which new time breeds new sin, brews blood and stews flesh;
Next year may see dead more germs than this weeded and reared them afresh.

VII.

Old times left perish, there's new time to cherish; life just shifts its tune;
As, when the day dies, earth, half afraid, eyes the growth of the moon;
Love me and save me, take me or waive me; death takes one so soon!





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