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The generous days / Stephen Spender

 
dc.contributor Oakman, Robert L., 1941- Department of English University of South Carolina Columbia
dc.contributor.author Spender, Stephen, 1909-
dc.coverage.placeName London
dc.date.accessioned 2018-07-27
dc.date.accessioned 2022-08-21T15:59:14Z
dc.date.available 2022-08-21T15:59:14Z
dc.date.created 1971
dc.identifier ota:0142
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14106/0142
dc.description.abstract Resource deposited with the Oxford Text Archive.
dc.format.extent Text data (1 file : ca. 23 KB)
dc.format.medium Digital bitstream
dc.language English
dc.language.iso eng
dc.publisher University of Oxford
dc.relation.ispartof Oxford Text Archive Legacy Collection
dc.rights Use of this resource is restricted in some manner. Usually this means that it is available for non-commercial use only with prior permission of the depositor and on condition that this header is included in its entirety with any copy distributed.
dc.rights.uri https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14106/licence-ota
dc.rights.label ACA
dc.subject.lcsh English poetry -- 20th century
dc.subject.other Poems
dc.title The generous days / Stephen Spender
dc.type Text
has.files yes
branding Oxford Text Archive
files.size 23238
files.count 1
otaterms.date.range 1900-1999

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IF IT WERE NOT
If it were not for that
Lean executioner, who stands
Ever beyond a door
With axe raised in both hands --
All my days here would be
One day -- the same -- the drops
Of light edgeless in light
That no circumference stops.
Mountain, star and flower
Single with my seeing
Would -- gone from sight -- draw back again
Each to its separate being.
Nor would I hoard against
The obliterating desert
Their petals of the crystal snow
Glittering on the heart.
My hand would never stir
To follow into stone
Hair the wind outlines on sky
A moment, and then gone.
What gives edge to remembering
Is death. It's that shows, curled,
Within each falling moment
An Antony, a world.
She came into the garden
And, walking through deep flowers, held up
Our child who, smiling down at her,
Clung to her throat, a cup.
Clocks notch such instances
On time: no time to keep
Beyond the eye's delight
The loss that makes it weep.
I chisel memories
Within a shadowy room,
Transmuting gleams of light to ships
Laun . . .
										

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