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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PROMISE, by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: Be not so desolate Alternate Author Name(s): A. E. | |||
BE not so desolate How deep the night about that soul! Because thy dreams have flown How fast the manacles! I brood And the hall of the heart is empty And recreate in my own heart And silent as stone, Its agony of solitude. As age left by children Sad and alone. Have golden lips breathed in that dark? And was the breath as vainly blown Those delicate children, As yon frail wind that trembles on Thy dreams, still endure: This mammoth herd of brutish stone? All pure and lovely things Wend to the Pure. A kinsman of the cherubim Sigh not: unto the fold Chained in this pit's abysmal mire! Their way was sure. Sound for the rescue! Bugles, blow! Thy gentlest dreams, thy frailest, Gird on the armoury of fire! Even those that were Born and lost in a heart-beat, Shall meet thee there. They are become immortal In shining air. The unattainable beauty The thought of which was pain, That flickered in eyes and on lips And vanished again: That fugitive beauty Thou shalt attain. The lights innumerable That led thee on and on, The Masque of Time ended, Shall glow into one. It shall be with thee for ever Thy travel done. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FROLIC by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL IMMORTALITY by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL RECONCILIATION by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL SACRIFICE by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL THE GIFT by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A CALL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A FAREWELL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A HOLY HILL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A LAST COUNSEL by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL A LEADER by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL |
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