July 30, 2008

LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI


We were happy, my love and I, until she, born
of evil and air,
Came into our lives without a sign,
So Pale, So Cold, So Fair.


Tall and silent, so certain was she that as
she drew him away
her eyes only spoke--two pallid cold eyes as never
saw light of warm day.


Pale of eye and hair and lip, still as Fair as
Death was she and
The strength of that frail and bloodless hand
Did take my love from me.


Thus she took him, unmindful of my grief
and the pain that many another
Before me had felt and after me
Will feel again.


She took him, his strong hand pale and weak
in her own
That many strong men before him had grasped
And with that Pale Fair One had gone.


Alone I now wait, waiting until the time
When a hand through my window will beckon
And my own pale hand is again in his
And once more he is mine.

(The above photo is "Death Comes for Alcmena" from The Thracian Horses, performed by the Mercer Players in Macon, Georgia, to have been performed on November 21, 1963. The performance was postponed because of the assassination of President Kennedy.)

5 comments:

Mary Ricksen said...

How cruel. Just like fate.
It's why we live from dream to dream.

Scarlet Pumpernickel said...

Everything was put on hold with the death of Kennedy. I remember teachers crying in the halls and the entire student body crowding into the high school gym to be told of the assination. The next few days, which were Thanksgiving holiday went by in a blur with so much coverage on television and our family glued to the black and white screen hanging on every word.

Nightingale said...

I was in math class and when they made the announcement, I thought it was a radio play or something for a second before I realized it was the truth. Loved the quote from Death Comes for Alcmena

Foxx Miyamoto said...

So beautiful and poignant, Toni. Very moving.

Mary Marvella said...

Toni and I were students at Mercer University. A very difficult time for everyone.

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