Friday 16 November 2007

To a poet, a thousand years hence.


To a Poet a thousand years hence

I who am dead a thousand years,
And wrote this sweet archaic song,
Send you my words for messengers
The way I shall not pass along.

I care not if you bridge the seas,
Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate palaces
Of metal or of masonry.

But have you wine and music still,
And statues and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
And prayers to them who sit above?

How shall we conquer? Like a wind
That falls at eve our fancies blow,
And old Moeonides the blind
Said it three thousand years ago.

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone:
I was a poet, I was young.

Since I can never see your face,
And never shake you by the hand,
I send my soul through time and space
To greet you. You will understand.

James Elroy Flecker.
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8 comments:

  1. Sweet poem by sweet poet. Hey, that's KLCC tower in Kuala Lumpur!

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  2. may i request? a poem by your own uncle lee?

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  3. So hard to imagine so far into the future, dizzying, like the tower in the picture.

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  4. That is every poet's wish, no?

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  5. I have always liked this - it immediately brought to mind a particular poem of another of my favourites: Edna St Vincent Millay. It can be read at:

    http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/poetry/Edna_St_Vincent_Millay/edna_st_vincent_millay_second_april_the_poet_and_his_book.htm

    ReplyDelete

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