Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A FRIEND IN DEATH, by GUILLERMO VALENCIA


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A FRIEND IN DEATH, by                    
First Line: Thou,gentle youth, wast rival in thy grace
Last Line: Of him who perished in the nile's pale arms.
Subject(s): Death; Friendship; Nile (river); Youth; Dead, The


I

THOU, gentle youth, wast rival in thy grace
And doom with fair Antinous of old,
Since thee, as well as him, the waters cold
Snatched from great Hadrian's imperial place.
How brief thine hours! How glooms thy breast efface!—
The rose of Life fell leafless in thy hold;
At thy first vows grim Destiny unstoled
Thy broken urn and spilt thy wine apace—

I would decipher through thy horoscope
Glooms of unconquerable night, and mould
Thine image with such melancholy charms
That thy half-troubled grace should learn of hope,
And set thy memory 'gainst the fables told
Of him who perished in the Nile's pale arms.





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