Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ADON by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON

Poet Analysis

First Line: I WILL NOT WEEP FOR ADON!
Last Line: THIS DUMB WHITE CORPSE OF ADON.
Subject(s): LIFE;

I WILL not weep for Adon!
I will not waste my breath to draw thick sighs
For Spring's dead greenness. All the orient skies
Are husht, and breathing out a bright surprise
Round morning's marshalling star: Rise, Eos, rise!
Day's dazzling spears are up: the faint stars fade on
The white hills, -- cold, like Adon!

O'er crag, and spar, and splinter
Break down, and roll the amber mist, stern light.
The black pines dream of dawn. The skirts of night
Are ravelled in the East. And planted bright
In heaven, the roots of ice shine, sharp and white,
In frozen ray, and spar, and spike, and splinter.
Within me and without, all's Winter.

Why should I weep for Adon?
Am I, because the sweet Past is no more,
Dead, as the leaves upon the graves of yore?
I will breathe boldly, though the air be frore
With freezing fire. Life still beats at the core
Of the world's heart, though Death his awe hath laid on
This dumb white corpse of Adon.



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