Ah, poet -- you, who sing "The days that are no more" -- There is a bitterer sting In the days that @3never were.@1 For lying alone in the night, Hearing the wind at play, I know such days to have been my right. Yet they came and took them away. I never knew them! They stole The sorrow out of my sleep; The crying out of my dreams. I cannot even weep. They came and took them -- they stole The longing that was my right, The grief that was my child. They left me alone in the night. "Never was" has a sharper sting Than "No more", as roll the years; And the gods take everything When they take away our tears. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HILL ABOVE THE MINE by MALCOLM COWLEY THE LITANY OF THE DARK PEOPLE by COUNTEE CULLEN ON TALK OF PEACE AT THIS TIME by ROBERT FROST MOTHERHOOD by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A PLANTATION BACCHANAL by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON TO J. D. H. (KILLED AT SURREY C. H., OCTOBER, 1866) by SIDNEY LANIER THE GULF by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |