Archive for the 'alice cary' Category

Make Believe by Alice Cary

April 30th, 2007 Comments(0)

The Alice Cary poem I posted previously was not overly cheerful (ha!), and in looking for another by her, I see that none of her poems are overly cheerful. Good thing I like the dark stuff.

Make Believe
By Alice Cary

Kiss me, though you make believe;
Kiss me, though I almost know
You are kissing to deceive:
Let the tide one moment flow
Backward ere it rise and break,
Only for poor pity’s sake!

Give me of your flowers one leaf,
Give me of your smiles one smile,
Backward roll this tide of grief
Just a moment, though, the while,
I should feel and almost know
You are trifling with my woe.

Whisper to me sweet and low;
Tell me how you sit and weave
Dreams about me, though I know
It is only make believe!
Just a moment, though ’tis plain
You are jesting with my pain.

The Sea-Side Cave by Alice Cary

October 30th, 2004 Comments(0)

Since Jeff and I were feeling murderous last night, I thought I’d post this poem.

The Sea-Side Cave
By Alice Cary

“A bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that
which hath wings shall tell the matter.”

At the dead of night by the side of the sea
I met my gray-haired enemy,—
The glittering light of his serpent eye
Was all I had to see him by.

At the dead of night, and stormy weather
We went into a cave together,—
Into a cave by the side of the Sea,
And—he never came out with me!

The flower that up through the April mould
Comes like a miser dragging his gold,
Never made spot of earth so bright
As was the ground in the cave that night.

Dead of night, and stormy weather!
Who should see us going together
Under the black and dripping stone
Of the cave from whence I came alone!

Next day as my boy sat on my knee
He picked the gray hairs off from me,
And told with eyes brimful of fear
How a bird in the meadow near

Over her clay-built nest had spread
Sticks and leaves all bloody red,
Brought from a cave by the side of the Sea
Where some murdered man must be.