O quam te memorem virgo…
STAND on the highest pavement of the stair-
Lean on a garden urn-
Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair-
Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise-
Fling them to the ground and turn
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.
So I would have had him leave,
So I would have had her stand and grieve,
So he would have left
As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,
As the mind deserts the body it has used.
I should find
Some way incomparably light and deft,
Some way we both should understand,
Simple and faithless as a smile and shake of the hand.
She turned away, but with the autumn weather
Compelled my imagination many days,
Many days and many hours:
Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.
And I wonder how they should have been together!
I should have lost a gesture and a pose.
Sometimes these cogitations still amaze
The troubled midnight and the noon’s repose.
(T. S. Eliot)
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Based on Topics: Mind Poems, Sadness Poems, Soul Poems, Flowers Poems, Smiling Poems, Hair Poems, Garden Poems, Body Poems, Autumn PoemsBased on Keywords: highest, stair, clasp, fling, weave, gesture, pavement, faithless, weather, pose, bruised