Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


HERACLITUS by CALLIMACHUS

First Line: THEY TOLD ME, HERACLITUS, THEY TOLD ME YOU WERE DEAD
Last Line: FOR DEATH HE TAKETH ALL AWAY, BUT THESE HE CAN NOT TAKE.
Subject(s): FRIENDSHIP; HERACLITUS (540-480 B.C.); GAYS & LESBIANS; LIFE CHANGE EVENTS; POETRY & POETS; HOMOEROTICISM; LESBIANS; GAY WOMEN; GAY MEN;

THEY told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead;
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remembered, how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of gray ashes, long, long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake,
For Death he taketh all away, but these he can not take.



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