A Pair Of Lovers In The Street
Arthur Henry Adams 1872 (Lawrence) – 1936 (Sydney, New South Wales)
A PAIR of lovers in the street!
I dare not mock: with reverence meet
My unforgetting heart I cheat.
Ah, God, spare me—so soon again
At the barred door to beat in vain,
And find their dalliance such fierce pain!
I, yearning up from Hell’s abyss,
See, dreaming through their worlds of bliss,
This Dante and his Beatrice!
For these the distant goal have won
For which God made the plasm and sun;
His patient labouring is done.
For these each Spring has been a bride,
And lonely worlds were spawned and died.
Chaos for them in birth-throes cried.
Far out in seas of Space forlorn
This crescent wave was slowly born
That thunders on the beach of morn.
Ah, they, so soon to be meshed in
The web of splendour, silken-thin,
The nebulae were set to spin!
Up the long path from joy to joy
Love led the way. Can aught destroy
The task that was the stars’ employ?
Their ecstasy to God is more
Than Lucifer at Heaven’s door
Entreating pardon for his war.
These two are gods, for, by love swayed,
They have God’s special task essayed,
And new worlds for their gladness made.
This little hour so lightly given
Makes earth too mean a place to live in,
And broken toys His Hell and Heaven.
All Time, expectant of their bliss,
Hangs fearful. Space through her abyss
Shudders if they this hour should miss.
For if their kiss they went without,
The stars would be a raining rout,
And time in anguish flicker out.
About God’s room from star to sun
A stealthy slippered Thing would run,
Quenching cold tapers one by one.
But they have kissed. Eternity,
Like a great clock, beats steadily
For these mazed fools—but not for me!
Of God’s wide universe the strands
They hold within their clinging hands;
The stars march on at their commands.
So from this moment blossom free
New universes tirelessly—
Aeons of unguessed ecstasy!
But I can only bow and beat
Vain hands about God’s mercy-seat,
And, still remembering, still entreat.
Surely my penance is complete!
The rack turns grimly when I meet
A pair of lovers on the street
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 147 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAA XBB CCX DDD EEE FFF GGG HHH III JAJ DGD CCC KKK DDD LLL MMM LLL AAA AAA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,265 |
Words | 365 |
Stanzas | 19 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Pair Of Lovers In The Street" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/3807/a-pair-of-lovers-in-the-street>.
Discuss the poem A Pair Of Lovers In The Street with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In