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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RESOLVE by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE

First Line: WHEN I THINK OF ALL THE MERCIES SHE HAS SHOWN
Last Line: AS THE SOLDIER OF HER LILYHOOD AND CAPTAIN OF HER FACE.
Subject(s): LOVE;
WHEN I think of all the mercies she has shown;
Of all the beauties given, of all the magic flown;
Of tenderness in blossom; of secrets breathed in trust;
Of joys and smiles and fragrances recovered from the dust
In Melancholy's lumber-room and vivified to grace;
And how the world was sparkling when a girl of brave desires
Beneath her little frostings showed the brilliance of her fires,
I determine I will hold me, till I rest among my sires,
As the soldier of her lilyhood and captain of her face.

When I think of that white clover of her neck;
Of many dimpled curvings, and each without a speck;
Of exquisite fragilities; of intonations sweet;
Of all the comely loading of the perfect little feet
That often tried so very hard to match my eager pace;
And remember how she fingered on my brow the troubled mark,
Forgot herself, and changed for me her bosom to a lark,
I determine I will hold me, till I go to test the dark,
As the soldier of her lilyhood and captain of her face.

When I think of all the trouble of my heart
While blackness took our story, and Love must have us part;
Of how she bent in patience; of how her lovely head
Fell forward, as a lily falls when youth and prime are sped
And bees go careless past the flower was once a darling place;
And remember how, in yielding to a torrent of surprise,
She flung her arms around my neck and kissed me to the skies,
I determine I will hold me, till the hour when memory dies,
As the soldier of her lilyhood and captain of her face.



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