Poem by Alan Seeger

Thirty Sonnets. 15. Sonnet 15. Above the ruin of God's holy place

Above the ruin of God's holy place,
Where man-forsaken lay the bleeding rood,
Whose hands, when men had craved substantial food,
Gave not, nor folded when they cried, Embrace,
I saw exalted in the latter days
Her whom west winds with natal foam bedewed,
Wafted toward Cyprus, lily-breasted, nude,
Standing with arms out-stretched and flower-like face.
And, sick with all those centuries of tears
Shed in the penance for factitious woe,
Once more I saw the nations at her feet,
For Love shone in their eyes, and in their ears
Come unto me, Love beckoned them, for lo!
The breast your lips abjured is still as sweet.

1. Tithonus
2. Thirty Sonnets. 30. At the Tomb of Napoleon before the Elections in America--November, 1912
3. Sonnet 9. Well, seeing I have no hope, then let us part
4. Thirty Sonnets. 22. With a Copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets on Leaving College
5. All That's Not Love...

Print

1386 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version