Suggestive Of A Song

Suggestive of a Song

 

What one has loved with youthful infatuation, 

what one has admired with childlike captivation; 

That with which one has kept secret, enigmatic company 

in the inwardness of the soul;

That which one has hidden in the heartone, 

always approached with a certain shyness, mixed feelings, 

when one knows that the purpose is to understand it;

What one has come to know piece by piece, 

just as a bird gleans each little straw for itself,

happier over each little bit than over all the rest of the world;

What the loving ear, solitary, has absorbed,

lonesome in a great crowd, unnoticed in its hiding place; 

What the avid ear has picked up, never satisfied, 

the avaricious ear has preserved, never secure; 

That which the faintest echo never disappointed in arousing

the venerate attention of a discerning ear;

What one has lived in during the day, relived in the evening, 

what has driven away sleep, making one restless;

What one has dreamt of, and what has awakened one, 

left in a wakefulness to dream about it again, 

and for the sake of which one has leapt out of bed 

in the middle of the night fearful of forgetting it;

What has made its appearance in the most inspired moments, 

what one has always had at hand, like a woman's needlework; 

What has accompanied one on bright moonlit nights, 

in lonely forests by the lake, along gloomy streets, 

in the middle of the night, at the breaking of day; 

What has sat with one on the same horse, 

what has been company in the carriage; 

What has permeated the home, what one's room has witnessed, 

what has resonated in the ear, what has reverberated in one’s heart, 

what the soul has spun into its finest fabric - this now shows itself to thought.

Just as in the old tales of those enigmatic beings, 

draped in seaweed, rising up from the bottom of the sea, 

so this also rises up from the sea of recollection, 

intertwined with mementos; 

The soul becomes sad and the heart mellow, 

for it is as if one were taking leave of it, as if one were parting, 

never to meet it again, neither in time nor in eternity;

One feels that one is being unfaithful, that one has betrayed one's pact,

one feels that one is no longer the same, not as young, not as childlike; 

One fears for oneself, that one will lose 

what has made one happy, blissful, and rich;

One fears also for what one loves, 

that it will suffer in this change, perhaps appearing less perfect, 

failing to answer the many questions. . . . 

Alas! Then all is lost, 

the magic gone, never to be evoked again.

 

by Brigitte Lowther

Found Poetry 

Kierkegaard, Soren. Either/Or Part 1 

 

Poetry Terms Demonstrated: 

Comments

junemoonchild

This body of this poem should be posted and viewed as center-aligned text. I am not familiar with how to do this properly, I apologize. Help with this? Thank you. Brigitte

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