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Poem by George Meredith


A Ballad of Past Meridian


I

Last night returning from my twilight walk
I met the grey mist Death, whose eyeless brow
Was bent on me, and from his hand of chalk
He reached me flowers as from a withered bough:
O Death, what bitter nosegays givest thou!

II

Death said, I gather, and pursued his way.
Another stood by me, a shape in stone,
Sword-hacked and iron-stained, with breasts of clay,
And metal veins that sometimes fiery shone:
O Life, how naked and how hard when known!

III

Life said, As thou hast carved me, such am I.
Then memory, like the nightjar on the pine,
And sightless hope, a woodlark in night sky,
Joined notes of Death and Life till night's decline
Of Death, of Life, those inwound notes are mine. 



George Meredith


George Meredith's other poems:
  1. King Harald's Trance
  2. Nature and Life
  3. Love Is Winged for Two
  4. Modern Love. Sonnet 23. 'Tis Christmas Weather
  5. Modern Love. Sonnet 30. What are We First?


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