"Everlasting Farewells" (Alice Meynell) @ ELCore.Net

“Everlasting Farewells”

“Everlasting farewells! And again,
and yet again . . . everlasting farewells!”
De Quincey

“Farewells!” O what a word!
Denying this agony, denying the affrights,
Denying all De Quincey spoke or heard
In the infernal sadness of his nights.

How mend these strange “farewells”?
“Vale”? “Addio”? “Leb’wohl”? Not one but seems
A tranquil refutation; tolling bells
That yet withhold the terror of his dreams.

http://poetry.elcore.net/CatholicPoets/Meynell/Meynell118.html
Created April 14, 2001; not revised.