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DEDICATION TO MARY ANGELA by ALFRED NOYES

Poet Analysis

First Line: UNDER THE PYRENEES
Last Line: AT RONCESVALLES, IN ONE LAST PRAYER FOR ME. . . .

Under the Pyrenees,
Where the warm sea-wind drifts thro' tamarisk boughs,
There is a lonely house upon a hill-top
That I shall never forget or see again.

I shall not see that garden, filled with roses,
On the high sun-burnt plateau, girdled round
With that low parapet, on the lonely hill-top,
By sunlight, or by moonlight, ever again.

In that lost garden stands a little chapel,
And the strange ship wherein we made our voyage,
Our little mortal ship of thoughts and visions,
Hangs there, in chains, before the twilit altar.
The doors are locked. The lamp is quenched for ever;
Though, at one corner of the house, Our Lady
Looks out, across the valley, to the sea.

And, on the landward side, across a valley
Purple as grapes in autumn, the dark mountains,
With peaks like broken swords, and splintered helmets,
Remembering Roland's death, are listening still.
Look down, look down, upon the sunlit valley,
Over the low white parapet of that garden;
And you shall see the long white road go winding
Through the Basque vineyards. . . .
But you shall not see
One face, nor shall you hear one voice that whispered
Love, as it died. . . .
Only one wooden Image
Knows where she knelt, among the lonely mountains
At Roncesvalles, in one last prayer for me. . . .



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