After Many Cold Winters Poem by Valsa George
After Many Cold Winters
After many cold winters, they met again,
Under the poplar tree on a starry moonlit night
Though they had planned it over many a time
It came to fruition after such long lapse of years
Once they loved as no lovers could ever
In devotion, never they faltered, never once failed
But fate was sadly against this star crossed pair
And the young lovers had to part ways in pain,
Don't assume they are at a chance rendezvous
But in a place, after much thought has been chosen
To refresh a memory, to recreate a scene
To step back to a time when they were still young
In the campus, there stood a towering tree
A giant poplar with overhanging boughs
In whose shade they had sat many a time
And wove dreams about a life so sweet and colorful
Once again the old class mates have congregated,
Exactly at the same place under the same tree
The college building being shifted to a new campus
A plush resort has come to occupy its place
But the tree still stands solitary as a mute witness
To that spectacular drama once enacted in its shade
Though years have wrinkled its aged bark
Still it bears the indelible mark of a heart pierced by an arrow
To its cover they have been drawn once more
Not to renew their bond or weave fresh dreams
But just to see and feel once and never more
For a fleeting second to be in love's prison bound
After hours of long talk, they embraced each other
In a firm clasp their lips curved, glances intertwined
The Earth stirred beneath their feet
A sea of emotion swelled in their hearts
An eloquent silence lingered deep
The celestial bodies above stood in breathless anticipation
From the sepulchered past, dead worlds awoke
They knew, separation had only accentuated their love
Alas! Nothing could their severed lives entwine
Nor an embrace, the shattered years combine
Yet this they meant as their last gesture of love
Hoping its memory would fuel them when weary
Once more they put their arms around
For the last time they looked at each other
With eyes blurred and moistened with tears
And billows of emotion rising sky high
Fearing they would lose their composure
Abruptly they turned their wan faces away
Without another word of good bye
They walked away into the stillness of the night!
The meeting of two lovers after a long long time (the tree under which they meet and its bark know better) to share an intimate time together only to part again for good has been immortalised along with its emotional spell. A different kind of love story. Sad and moving. A quote: The Earth stirred beneath their feet / A sea of emotion swelled in their hearts /....With eyes blurred and moistened with tears / And billows of emotion rising sky high.
It is always a pleasure reading your comments! I feel greatly obliged!
This poem is indeed replete with deep emotions of love. One gets a wonderful feeling while reading the poem, whether or not one's own experience is similar to what has been described. You have gone into great details of the emotions that bound the two seeking souls, and very gracefully separated them too. I wonder if the narration is autobiographic, and I know it's not proper to ask a poet about the relevance of his/her poem with personal life. 'An eloquent silence lingered deep The celestial bodies above stood in breathless anticipation From the sepulchered past, dead worlds awoke They knew, separation had only accentuated their love' - So wonderfully described! Not everybody's cup of tea! 'Fearing they would lose their composure Abruptly they turned their wan faces away Without another word of good bye They walked away into the stillness of the night! ' - Wow! I cannot conceive of a better concluding stanza!
A touching expression has been made on love and departure. The most impressive lines are.....After hours of long talk, they embraced each other / In a firm clasp their lips curved, glances intertwined / The Earth stirred beneath their feet / A sea of emotion swelled in their hearts....sea of emotion.... isn't it so touching and impressive? Really it is your marvelous work.
A very touching and moving poem. A timeless love story that touches the.core of the.heart. Yet, there is pain in knowing and it remains a question at the recesses of the.mind why two people so in love with each other could.not be together until the.end.
A mind blowing narration of the meeting of two souls so deeply in love but have to part at the end. I loved how the great Poetess conceived the setting of this love story. So realistic and vividly portrayed that a reader could feel that he is in the scene witnessing the wonderful story. I liked how she described the tree as the.silent witness of the love affair.
There has to be some kind of affirmation that the stuff of dreams is interwoven with the mundane materials of everyday life. For the two people in the poem, maybe love inspired them to dream bigger and go further in their vocations. So they wanted to revisit their youthful bond to keep the wind of love in their sails. This reminds me of a personal experience. The novels of Herman Melville, especially MOBY DICK, fed my imagination and dreams from my teen-age years. I deliberately set aside one of his major novels, leaving it unread until I turned 60, to give myself a new surge of inspiration. In one way I was not disappointed, but in another way, even my disappointment taught me something: That is, I need to keep believing in my younger self, to take care of what remains of my youthful enthusiasm and passion, because it still helps me.
Thank you so much Denis for this analytical comment....! Yes, the meeting of these lovers was not accidental, but a deep longing of mind which made it possible for them to have somehow a re enactment of their youthful love, as you had by prolonging your desire to read your favorite novel at 60 to enjoy a youthful thrill at an advanced stage of life! As you have beautifully put, they wanted the wind of love in their sails! I too loved Moby Dick while I was a student!
A heartbreaking poem on love that is not destined to be. Perhaps these two had made other commitments that choose to maintain or pursue. A poem that reminds me of one of Shakespeare's most famous monologues: “All the world’s a stage And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts” Thank you Valsa for another excellent read.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/23/2024 5:47:23 PM # 1.0.0.1119
. This poem is so tender and heart-felt. You made me care deeply about the happiness of these two people but at the same time the voice of narration was impersonal, and encompass more than the tone of a neighbor relating the story of a failed young love. The story is taking place on a much larger stage than one about a distant love affair being revived. It's about the currents of time, change and eventually fate. I had to bow my head to the theme of fate. The Vietnamese have a national poem called KIM-VAN-KIEU with the same situation. After years of separate hardships Kim and Kieu are reunited but they realize they cannot pick up the broken pieces of decades of turmoil and change and both dedicate themselves to Buddhist withdrawal. But for a confirmed romantic like myself (and you too? !) the bitter-sweet ending of both your poem and the Vietnamese one is painful. the .