Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONG OF HANRAHAN THE RED by ALFRED NOYES

Poet Analysis

First Line: OH, DEATH WILL NEVER FIND US IN THE HEART OF THE WOOD
Last Line: WE SHALL WANDER ON TOGETHER, YOU AND I.

OH, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood,
The song is in my blood, night and day;
We will pluck a scented petal from the Rose upon the Rood
Where Love lies bleeding on the way;
We will listen to the linnet and watch the waters leap,
When the clouds go dreaming by,
And under the wild roses and the stars we will sleep
And wander on together, you and I.

We shall understand the mystery that none has understood,
We shall know why the leafy gloom is green;
Oh, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood
When we see what the stars have seen;
We have heard the hidden song of the soft dews falling
At the end of the last dark sky,
Where all the sorrows of the world are calling,
We must wander on together, you and I.

They are calling, calling, Away, come away,
And we know not whence they call;
For the song is in our hearts, we hear it night and day,
As the deep tides rise and fall:
Oh, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood,
While the hours and the years roll by;
We have heard it, we have heard it, but we have not understood,
We must wander on together, you and I.

The wind may beat upon us, the rain may blind our eyes,
The leaves may fall beneath the winter's wing;
But we shall hear the music of the dream that never dies;
And we shall know the secret of the spring;
We shall know how all the blossoms of evil and of good
Are mingled in the meadows of the sky;
And then -- if Death can find us in the heart of the wood,
We shall wander on together, you and I.



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