If that's water you wash your hands in Why is it black as ink is black? ''" Because my hands are foul with my folly: Oh the lost time that comes not back! ''" If that's water you bathe your feet in Why is it red as wine is red? ''" Because my feet sought blood in their goings; Red red is the track they tread. ''" Slew you mother or slew you father That your foulness passeth not by? ''" Not father and oh not mother: I slew my love with an evil eye. ''" Slew you sister or slew you brother That in peace you have not a part? ''" Not brother and oh not sister: I slew my love with a hardened heart. He loved me because he loved me, Not for grace or beauty I had; He loved me because he loved me; For his loving me I was glad. Yet I loved him not for his loving While I played with his love and truth, Not loving him for his loving, Wasting his joy, wasting his youth. I ate his life as a banquet, I drank his life as new wine, I fattened upon his leanness, Mine to flourish and his to pine. So his life fled as running water, So it perished as water spilt: If black my hands and my feet as scarlet, Blacker redder my heart of guilt. Cold as a stone, as hard, as heavy; All my sighs ease it no whit, All my tears make it no cleaner Dropping dropping dropping on it. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OF MAIDENS' PRAISE: AN INVOCATION by SAINT ALDHELM NEIGHBORS by ANNE MILLAY BREMER A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 30 by THOMAS CAMPION THE SONG IN THE DELL by CHARLES EDWARD CARRYL WILD GEESE by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS A CREOLE TRIPTYCH: 2. THE PLAINSMAN by JOSE SANTOS CHOCANO FREDERICK DOUGLASS by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER SR. THE LOVE OF THE WORLD REPROVED; OR, HYPOCRISY DETECTED by WILLIAM COWPER |