THE RAVEN DAYS
by: Sidney Lanier (1842-1881)
- UR hearths
are gone out, and our hearts are broken,
- And but the ghosts of homes to us remain,
- And ghostly eyes and hollow sighs give token
- From friend to friend of an unspoken pain.
-
- O, Raven Days, dark Raven Days of sorrow,
- Bring to us, in your whetted ivory beaks,
- Some sign out of the far land of To-morrow,
- Some strip of sea-green dawn, some orange streaks.
-
- Ye float in dusky files, forever croaking--
- Ye chill our manhood with your dreary shade.
- Pale, in the dark, not even God invoking,
- We lie in chains, too weak to be afraid.
-
- O Raven Days, dark Raven Days of sorrow,
- Will ever any warm light come again?
- Will ever the lit mountains of To-morrow
- Begin to gleam across the mournful plain?
MORE
POEMS BY SIDNEY LANIER |
|