Elegy Poems
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'
hierarchies? and even if one of them suddenly
pressed me against his heart, I would perish
in the embrace of his stronger existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure and are awed
because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Each single angel is terrifying.
And so I force myself, swallow and hold back
the surging call of my dark sobbing.
......
Elegy Viii: The Comparison
by John Donne
As the sweet sweat of roses in a still,
As that which from chafed musk-cats' pores doth trill,
As the almighty balm of th' early East,
Such are the sweat drops of my mistress' breast,
And on her brow her skin such lustre sets,
They seem no sweat drops, but pearl coronets.
Rank sweaty froth thy Mistress's brow defiles,
Like spermatic issue of ripe menstruous boils,
Or like the scum, which, by need's lawless law
Enforced, Sanserra's starved men did draw
......
Elegy In April And September
by Wilfred Owen
Hush, thrush! Hush, missen-thrush, I listen...
I heard the flush of footsteps through the loose leaves,
And a low whistle by the water's brim.
Still! Daffodil! Nay, hail me not so gaily,-
Your gay gold lily daunts me and deceives,
Who follow gleams more golden and more slim.
Look, brook! O run and look, O run!
The vain reeds shook? - Yet search till gray sea heaves,
......
Elegy
by Dylan Thomas
Too proud to die; broken and blind he died
The darkest way, and did not turn away,
A cold kind man brave in his narrow pride
On that darkest day, Oh, forever may
He lie lightly, at last, on the last, crossed
Hill, under the grass, in love, and there grow
Young among the long flocks, and never lie lost
Or still all the numberless days of his death, though
......
Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
O trees of life, oh, what when winter comes?
We are not of one mind. Are not like birds
in unison migrating. And overtaken,
overdue, we thrust ourselves into the wind
and fall to earth into indifferent ponds.
Blossoming and withering we comprehend as one.
And somewhere lions roam, quite unaware,
in their magnificence, of any weaknesss.
But we, while wholly concentrating on one thing,
......
Elegy for November
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
The shoals below the horrid caverns of a lagoon
usurp all terraces and embankments,
just for the feast on bloodꓽ
crimson atoll
and cremated corals.
Ecclesiastes of the third age is unknown to them —
they who in all seasons,
without respite,
have feasted in flesh and blood,
including that of a famous guru
......
The Silent Land
by Muhammad Umair
I saw you lying in the silent land,
I bent to hold you by the hand;
It was heart-wrenching to not feel you,
Days spent without you are still due.
I took the relation for granted
And nothing else was ever wanted,
I thought we'd stay together forever;
But you turned out to be rather clever---
......
returning home after seventy years
by Kinsley Lee
They drew in foreign power and invaded
The other brothers in the name of liberation.
With the army who changed uniform, they raided
At dawn, suddenly. With difficulty, nation
Defended against an enemy desperately.
The young soldiers’re at the age of twenty.
Elder brother was dead at the battle
Of Youndug, Pohang at the Walker line.
After In-Cheon Operation, they retreated to scuttle.
......
elegy to my neighborhood hero
by Sarah A
i woke up in a haze
a fog foreshadowing
a reunion
with the unexplainable
unescapable
unclear
nature of life
i sailed my bike in the storm
screamed in terror and delight
hoping to outrun my demons
......
Elegy to the Fallen
by Earl Esguerra
The baleful crows of nightingales
sound the lamentation of one’s final throes.
The skies cry for the thoughts and memories you’ve left behind,
the beautiful flowers shrivel up in response; petals once alluring now lifeless
Never would one think that in your passing
brings such a feeling of melancholy and longing.
The cries of toiling people comes with you in your rest,
Beneath the murky ground – amidst the vast and desolate plains
until the echoes of life leave their bodies.
