Classic and Contemporary Poetry
YEAR OF SORROW: 1849, by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Once more, through god's high will, and grace Variant Title(s): Sprin Subject(s): Ireland | ||||||||
SPRING ONCE more, through God's high will, and grace Of hours that each its task fulfils , Heart-healing Spring resumes her place, The valley throngs, and scales the hills. In vain. From earth's deep heart, o'ercharged, The exulting life runs o'er in flowers. The slave unfed is unenlarged; In darkness sleep a Nation's powers. Who knows not Spring? Who doubts, when blows Her breath, that Spring is come indeed? The swallow doubts not; nor the rose That stirs, but wakes not; nor the weed. I feel her near, but see her not; For these with pain- uplifted eyes Fall back repulsed, and vapours blot The vision of the earth and skies. I see her not; I feel he near, As, charioted in mildest airs, She sails through yon empyreal sphere, And in her arms and bosom bears That urn of flowers and lustral dews Whose sacred balm, o'er all things shed, Revives the weak, the old renews, And crowns with votive wreaths the dead Once more the cuckoo's call I hear; I know, in many a glen profound, The earliest violets of the year Rise up like water from the ground. The thorn, I know, once more is white And, far down many a forest dale, The anemones in dubious light Are trembling like a bridal veil.; By streams released, that singing flow From craggy shelf through sylvan glades, The pale narcissus, well I know, Smiles hour by hour on greener shades. The honeyed cowslip tufts once more The golden slopes; with gradual ray The primrose stars the rock, and o'er The wood-path strews its milky way. From ruined huts and holes come forth Old men, and look upon the sky. The Power Divine is on the earth: Give thanks to God before ye die! And ye, O children, worn and weak, Who care no more with flowers to play, Lean on the grass your cold, thin cheek And those slight hands, and, whispering, say: 'Stern mother of a race unblest, In promise kindly, cold in deed, Take back, O Earth, into thy breast, The children whom thou wilt not feed.' SUMMER Approved by works of love and might, The Year, consummated and crowned, Hath scaled the zenith's purple height, And flings his robe the earth around. Impassioned stillness, fervours calm, Brood, vast and bright, o'er land and deep; The warrior sleeps beneath the palm; The dark-eyed captive guards his sleep. The Iberian labourer rests from toil; Sicilian virgins twine the dance; Laugh Tuscan vales in wine and oil; Fresh laurels flash from brows of France. Far off, in regions of the North, The hunter drops his winter fur; Sun- wakened babes their feet stretch forth; And nested dormice feebly stir. But thou, O land of many woes! What cheer is thine? Again the breath Of proved Destruction o'er thee blows, And sentenced fields grow black in death. In horror of a new despair His blood- shot eyes the peasant strains With hands clenched fast, and lifted hair, Along the daily darkening plains. Why trusted he to them his store? Why feared he not the scourge to come?' Fool! turn the page of History o'er The roll of Statutes-and be dumb! Behold, O People! thou shalt die! What art thou better than thy sires? The hunted deer a weeping eye Turns on his birthplace, and expires. Lo! as the closing of a book, Or statue from its base o'erthrown, Or blasted wood, or dried- up brook, Name, race, and nation, thou art gone! The stranger shall thy hearth possess; The stranger build upon thy grave. But know this also- he, not less, His limit and his term shall have. Once more thy volume, open cast, In thunder forth shall sound thy name; Thy forest, hot at heart, at last God's breath shall kindle into flame. Thy brook, dried up, a cloud shall rise, And stretch an hourly widening hand, In God's good vengeance, through the skies, And onward o'er the Invader's land. Of thine, one day, a remnant left Shall raise o'er earth a Prophet's rod, And teach the coasts, of Faith bereft, The names of Ireland and of God. AUTUMN Then die, thou Year-- thy work is done; The work, ill done, is done at last; Far off, beyond that sinking sun, Which sets in blood, I hear the blast That sings thy dirge, and says: 'Ascend, And answer make amid thy peers, Since all things here must have an end, Thou latest of the famine years.' I join that voice. No joy have I In all thy purple and thy gold; Nor in that ninefold harmony From forest on to forest rolled; Nor in that stormy western fire Which burns on ocean's gloomy bed, And hurls, as from a funeral pyre, A glare that strikes the mountain's head; And writes on low- hung clouds its lines Of ciphered flame, with hurrying hand: And flings, amid the topmost pines That crown the cliff, a burning brand. Make answer, Year, for all thy dead, Who found not rest in hallowed earth: The widowed wife, the father fled, The babe age-stricken from his birth! Make answer, Year, for virtue lost; For courage, proof 'gainst fraud and force, Now waning like a noontide ghost; Affections poisoned at their source! The labourer spurned his lying spade; The yeoman spurned his useless plough; The pauper spurned the unwholesome aid Obtruded once, exhausted now. The roof-trees fall of hut and hall; I hear them fall, and falling cry: 'One fate for each, one fate for all! So wills the Law that willed a lie. ' Dread power of Man! what spread the waste In circles hour by hour more wide, And would not let the past be past? That Law which promised much, and lied. Dread power of God, Whom mortal years Nor touch, nor tempt, Who sitt'st sublime In night of night-oh, bid Thy spheres Resound, at last, a funeral chime! Call up at last the afflicted race, Whom Man, not God, abolished. Sore, For centuries, their strife; the place That knew them once shall know no more! WINTER Fall, snow, and cease not! Flake by flake The decent winding- sheet compose; Thy task is just and pious; make An end of blasphemies and woes! Fall, flake by flake! by thee alone, Last friend, the sleeping draught is given. Kind nurse, by thee the couch is strown The couch whose covering is from Heaven. Descend and clasp the mountain's crest; Inherit plain and valley deep. This night on thy maternal breast A vanquished nation dies in sleep. Lo! from the starry Temple Gates Death rides, and bears the flag of peace; The combatants he separates; He bids the wrath of ages cease. Descend, benignant Power! But, oh, Ye torrents, shake no more the vale! Dark streams, in silence seaward flow! Thou rising storm, remit thy wail! Shake not, to-night, the cliffs of Moher, Nor Brandon's base, rough sea! Thou Isle, The Rite proceeds! From shore to shore Hold in thy gathered breath the while! Fall, snow in stillness fall, like dew, On church's roof and cedar's fan; And mould thyself on pine and yew, And on the awful face of Man. Without a sound, without a stir, In streets and wolds, on rock and mound, O omnipresent Comforter, By Thee this night the lost are found! On quaking moor and mountain moss, With eyes upstaring at the sky, And arms extended like a cross, The long-expectant sufferers lie. Bend o'er them, white-robed Acolyte! Put forth thine hand from cloud and mist; And minister the last sad Rite, Where altar there is none, nor priest; Touch thou the gates of soul and sense; Touch darkening eyes and dying ears; Touch stiffening hands and feet, and thence Remove the trace of sins and tears! And, ere thou seal those filméd eyes, Into God's urn thy fingers dip, And lay, ' mid eucharistic sighs, The sacred wafer on the lip. This night the Absolver issues forth; This night the Eternal Victim bleeds. O winds and woods, O heaven and earth, Be still this night! The Rite proceeds! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SIGHTSEERS by PAUL MULDOON THE DREAM SONGS: 290 by JOHN BERRYMAN THE BALLAD OF BALLYMOTE by TESS GALLAGHER AN IRISH HEADLAND by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE GIANT'S RING: BALLYLESSON, NEAR BELFAST by ROBINSON JEFFERS IRELAND; WRITTEN FOR THE ART AUTOGRAPH DURING IRISH FAMINE by SIDNEY LANIER A BALLAD OF ATHLONE; OR, HOW THEY BROKE DOWN THE BRIDGE by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE A BALLAD OF SARSFIELD; OR, THE BURSTING OF THE GUNS by AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE |
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