Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN DISPRAISE OF THE MOON by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE

First Line: I WOULD NOT BE THE MOON, THE SICKLY THING
Last Line: THAT LIGHT, REFLECTED, BUT MAKES DARKNESS PLAIN.
Subject(s): MOON;
I would not be the Moon, the sickly thing,
To summon owls and bats upon the wing;
For when the noble Sun is gone away,
She turns his night into a pallid day.
She hath no air, no radiance of her own,
That world unmusical of earth and stone.
She wakes her dim, uncolored, voiceless hosts,
Ghost of the Sun, herself the sun of ghosts.
The mortal eyes that gaze too long on her
Of Reason's piercing ray defrauded are.
Light in itself doth feed the living brain;
That light, reflected, but makes darkness plain.





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