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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE SUICIDE by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: DID THESE NIGHT-HUNG HOUSES
Last Line: COLD IS THIS BREAST.'

Did these night-hung houses,
Of quiet, starlit stone,
Breathe not a whisper -- 'Stay,
Thou unhappy one;
Whither so secret away?'

Sighed not the unfriending wind,
Chill with nocturnal dew,
'Pause, pause, in thy haste,
O thou distraught! I too
Tryst with the Atlantic waste.'

Steep fell the drowsy street;
In slumber the world was blind:
Breathed not one midnight flower
Peace in thy broken mind? --
'Brief, yet sweet, is life's hour.'

Syllabled thy last tide --
By as dark moon stirred,
And doomed to forlorn unrest --
Not one compassionate word?. . .
'Cold is this breast.'



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