O my body, my eyes, my mouth, Why do we live? To breathe day's farewell in the darkening south, To bring to the quest of a virgin's drouth The draught we can give; To trail in the dark of an icy stream The branch of a dark laurel, While dimly we watch, in the depths of our dream, Virgil caressed by shades auroral; To ride a savage horse, To breast a torrent's course. ... O my heart, why do we live? To be a moment of the primal cause of birth, An hour of the essence vibrative, One of the secret mates of eternal earth. Why live, O deepest flesh of me, why live, Why quicken cordial breath, Save to expand the widening realms of death! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF SAUL BEFORE HIS LAST BATTLE by GEORGE GORDON BYRON ARABIA by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE ALONZO THE BRAVE AND THE FAIR IMOGINE by MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS CIRCUMSTANCE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HYMEN AND CUPID - MARRIAGE AND LOVE by APHRA BEHN ON THE FUNERAL OF CHARLES I; AT NIGHT, IN ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES |