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    Forty-Two Poems
    Forty-Two Poems
    Forty-Two Poems
    Ebook81 pages35 minutes

    Forty-Two Poems

    By James Elroy Flecker

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    This antiquarian book contains forty-two poems by the seminal English poet, James Elroy Flecker. Flecker's beautiful and moving poetry will appeal to all manner of poetry-lovers, and this collection is a veritable must-have for fans of his pioneering poetry. The verses contained herein include: 'To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence', 'Rioupéroux', 'The Town Without a Market', 'The Ballad of Camden Town', 'Mignon', 'Felo De Se', 'Tenebris Interlucentem', 'Invitation', 'Ballad of the Londoner', 'The First Sonnet of Bathrolaire', and many more. James Elroy Flecker (1884 – 1915) was an esteemed English poet, playwright, and novelist. In his poetry writing, he was heavily influenced by the writings of the Parnassian poets. This book is being republished now in an affordable, modern edition, complete with a new biography of the author.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMar 5, 2013
    ISBN9781447488378

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      Book preview

      Forty-Two Poems - James Elroy Flecker

      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 Mœonides 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.

      RIOUPÉROUX

      High and solemn mountains guard Rioupéroux,

      —Small untidy village where the river drives a mill:

      Frail as wood anemones, white and frail were you,

      And drooping a little, like the slender daffodil.

      Oh I will go to France again, and tramp the valley through,

      And I will change these gentle clothes for clog and corduroy,

      And work with the mill-hands of black Rioupéroux,

      And walk with you, and talk with you, like any other boy.

      THE TOWN WITHOUT A MARKET

      There lies afar behind a western hill

      The Town without a Market, white and still;

      For six feet long and not a third as high

      Are those small habitations. There stood I,

      Waiting to hear the citizens beneath

      Murmur and sigh and speak through tongueless teeth.

      When all the world lay burning in the sun

      I heard their voices speak to me. Said one:

      "Bright lights I loved and colours, I who find

      That death is darkness, and has struck me blind."

      Another cried: "I used to sing and play,

      But here the world is silent, day by day."

      And one: "On earth I could not see or hear,

      But with my fingers touched what I was near,

      And knew things round and soft, and brass from gold,

      And dipped my hand in water, to feel cold,

      And thought the grave would cure me, and was glad

      When the time came to lose what joy I had."

      Soon all the voices of a hundred dead

      Shouted in wrath together. Someone said,

      "I care not, but the girl was sweet to kiss

      At evening in the meadows. Hard it is"

      Another cried, "to hear no hunting horn.

      Ah me! the horse, the hounds, and the great grey morn

      When I rode out a-hunting." And one sighed,

      I did not see my son before I died.

      A boy said, "I was strong and swift to run:

      Now they have tied my feet: what have I done?"

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