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larryhammerFor Poetry Monday:
The Happy Night, J. C. Squire
I have loved to-night; from love’s last bordering steep
I have fallen at last with joy and forgotten the shore;
I have known my love to-night as never before,
I have flung myself in the deep, and drawn from the deep,
And kissed her lightly, and left my beloved to sleep.
And now I sit in the night and my heart is still:
Strong and secure; there is nothing that’s left to will,
There is nothing to win but only a thing to keep.
And I look to-night, completed and not afraid,
Into the windy dark where shines no light;
And care not at all though the darkness never should fade,
Nor fear that death should suddenly come to-night.
Knowing my last would be surely my bravest breath,
I am happy to-night: I have laughed to-night at death.
Squire (1884-1958) was an influential literary editor and critic, as well as Georgian poet. This was written in 1919, and first published in his 1921 collection Poems: Second Series, which despite the title was nowhere near his second collection of poetry.
---L.
Subject quote from A Toccata of Galuppi’s, Robert Browning.
The Happy Night, J. C. Squire
I have loved to-night; from love’s last bordering steep
I have fallen at last with joy and forgotten the shore;
I have known my love to-night as never before,
I have flung myself in the deep, and drawn from the deep,
And kissed her lightly, and left my beloved to sleep.
And now I sit in the night and my heart is still:
Strong and secure; there is nothing that’s left to will,
There is nothing to win but only a thing to keep.
And I look to-night, completed and not afraid,
Into the windy dark where shines no light;
And care not at all though the darkness never should fade,
Nor fear that death should suddenly come to-night.
Knowing my last would be surely my bravest breath,
I am happy to-night: I have laughed to-night at death.
Squire (1884-1958) was an influential literary editor and critic, as well as Georgian poet. This was written in 1919, and first published in his 1921 collection Poems: Second Series, which despite the title was nowhere near his second collection of poetry.
---L.
Subject quote from A Toccata of Galuppi’s, Robert Browning.