"Some of those who had been bereaved by these merciless marauders, and would be comforted, then paced towards the hills, and looked back on the scenes of their youth. They sang with melancholy scorn and embittered passion, this querulous ditty, which later generations have remembered as the 'Lay of the Broken-hearted and Hope-bereaved men,' who went up to the hollowed mountain, where they shut themselves up in a cavern, building up its mouth strongly with huge stones; and there, in sunlessness and unavailing sorrow, these broken-hearted ones died." -- MOTHERWELL. THE rude and the reckless wind, ruthlessly strips The leaf that last lingered on old forest tree; The widowed branch wails for the love it has lost; The parted leaf pines for Its glories foregone. Now sereing, in sadness, and quite broken-hearted, It mutters mild music, and swan-like on-fleeteth A burden of melody, musing of death, To some desert spot where, unknown and unnoted, Its woes and its wanderings may both find a tomb, Far far from the land where it grew in its gladness, And hung from its brave branch, freshly and green, Bathed in blythe dews and soft shimmering in sunshine, From morn until even-tide, A beautiful joy! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO KNOW IN REVERIE THE ONLY PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE ABSOLUTE by HAYDEN CARRUTH RETURN (1) by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SONNET: TO SLEEP by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BUDDHA AND BRAHMA by HENRY BROOKS ADAMS RUTH by CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER |