Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HOUSE OF SORROWS, by FRANCIS THOMPSON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Of the white purity Last Line: Where any blow were pity, to this it struck before! Subject(s): Assassination; Elizabeth. Empress Of Austria (1837-98); Grief; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
I OF the white purity They wrought my wedding-dress, Inwoven silverly -- For tears, as I do guess. Oh, why did they with tears inweave my marriage-dress? A girl, I did espouse Destiny, grief, and fears; The love of Austria's house And its ancestral years I learned; and my salt eyes grew erudite in tears. Devote our tragic line -- One to his rebel's aim, One to his ignorant brine, One to the eyeless flame: Who should be skilled to weep but I, O Christ's dear Dame? Give one more to the fire, One more for water keep: O Death, wilt thou not tire? Still Austria must thou reap? Can I have plummetless tears, that still thou bidd'st: 'Weep, weep!'? No -- thou at length with me Too far, Dark Fool, hast gone! One costly cruelty Voids thy dominion: I am drained to the uttermost tear: O Rudolph, O my son! Take this woof of sorrows, Son of all Women's Tears! I am not for the morrows, I am dead with the dead years. Lo, I vest Thee, Christ, with my woven tears! My bridal wreath take thou, Mary! Take Thou, O Christ, My bridal garment! Now Is all my fate sufficed, And, robed and garlanded, the victim sacrificed. II The Son of Weeping heard, The gift benignly saw; The Women's Pitier heard. Together, by hid law, The life-gashed heart, the assassin's healing poniard, draw. Too long that consummation The obdurate seasons thwart; Too long were the sharp consolation And her breast apart; -- The remedy of steel has gone home to her sick heart. Her breast, dishabited, Revealed, her heart above, A little blot of red, -- Death's reverent sign to approve He had sealed up that royal tomb of martyred love. Now, Death, if thou wouldst show Some ruth still left in store, Guide thou the armed blow To strike one bosom more, Where any blow were pity, to this it struck before! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS ARAB LOVE SONG by FRANCIS THOMPSON |
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