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Poems, translated and original cover

Poems, translated and original

Chapter 13: IS THIS A DAY OF DEATH?
By E. F. Ellet
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Poetry

About This Book

A compact volume of translated and original lyric poems paired with a short tragic drama. The poems range from elegiac meditations on death, memory, and the fate of poets to vivid nature pieces about lakes, seas, and changing skies; they also include mythic and historical reflections, paraphrases of sacred texts, and shorter lyrical forms such as sonnets and songs. Recurrent concerns are remembrance versus oblivion, the consolations of landscape, poetic vocation, and the ceremonial practices surrounding burial, while the concluding tragedy adapts a Venetian incident into dramatic scenes.

IS THIS A DAY OF DEATH?

Is this a day of death?
The heavens look blithely on the laughing earth,
And from her thousand vales a voice of mirth
And melody is springing; with the breath
Of smiling flowers that lift their joyous heads,
Bright with the radiant tears which evening sheds.
Hath sorrow’s voice been heard
With her low plaint, and broken wail of wo?—
Hark to the play of waves!—and glancing now
Forth from his leafy nest the exulting bird
Pours his wild carol on the fragrant gale,
Bidding the sunbright woods and waters hail!
Hath happiness departed
From this glad scene? Is there a home—a hearth
Made desolate? Alas! the tones of earth
Sound not in concert with the broken-hearted!
Yon sea—the gorgeous sun—the azure sky—
Were never meant to mourn with things that die!