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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Poem-A-Day: Renouncement by Alice Meynell

at Saturday, August 31, 2013 with 0 comments
Renouncement
 
 

I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong, 

I shun the thought that lurks in all delight--    

   The thought of thee--and in the blue heaven's height, 

And in the sweetest passage of a song. 

Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng    

   This breast, the thought of thee waits hidden yet bright; 

But it must never, never come in sight; 

I must stop short of thee the whole day long. 

But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,    

   When night gives pause to the long watch I keep, 

And all my bonds I needs must loose apart, 

Must doff my will as raiment laid away,--    

   With the first dream that comes with the first sleep 

I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart. 

 

  

Today's poem is in the public domain. 

About This Poem
Alice Meynell's work was highly esteemed by her contemporaries; it is even said that Dante Gabriel Rossetti knew "Renouncement" by heart.
Poetry by Meynell

(Duey Press, 2008)

 
Poem-A-Day
Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on 
weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.  
August 31, 2013

Alice Meynell was born in London on September 22, 1847. Though best known as a poet, she was also a prominent editor, critic, suffragette, and campaigner against imperialism. Meynell died in 1922.
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