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William Alexander Percy

Author

At Portofino

I Here life pays peace and ecstasy for tithe: The dissonant trumpets of the world are mute And God is but an old man with a scythe And love the faltering fancy of a flute. To lie with kissing lashes and confuse The silver olives and the gol [...]

Shroud Song

Only asters gone to seed, Goldenrod and fennel-weed Make her meager diadem, Brede her snowy cuffs and hem. Stitch the blossoms gone to feather On her breast where frost's the weather; Here a sprig and there a spray— Loveliness has gone its way. The [...]

Not to Be Naming You

Not to be naming you in all my prayers Has made me prayerless, pagan, atheist; Not to be knowing I am of your cares Has loosed a ghost with eyes of amethyst Into the regal day. The only thread, Now broke, that bounden me to life was you, So [...]

Even in Love

Beloved and alien, gaze with me on the sea: It kneels before the moon whose crimson blade Rests on its million shoulders. But for me The image of that lunar accolade Is not the one your eyes bring in to you— It varies by the flinching of a [...]