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Sidney Lanier (1842-1881 / Macon / Georgia)
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The Wedding
O marriage-bells, your clamor tells
Two weddings in one breath.
SHE marries whom her love compels:
-- And I wed Goodman Death!
My brain is blank, my tears are red;
Listen, O God: -- "I will," he said: --
And I would that I were dead.
Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid Pain
Come and stand with a ghastly twain.
My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meres
To wed a bride with bloody tears.
Ring, ring, O bells, full merrily:
Life-bells to her, death-bells to me:
O Death, I am true wife to thee!
Read poems about / on: marriage, death, grief, red, pain, wedding, god, life
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This is pretty amazing. I am lost for words..
By our very births, we make vows down the aisles path
Love, tears, fears, and mirths, write down our epitath
This is inevitable. We can't deny it.
Quite an amusing way to put marriage.
In a weird amusing way, this was rather captivating. I like how he uses death and marriage. Together, they sound kinda fit for each other. This is good :)
A Tale Of Two Weddings... movingly writ 'A Blue Rose'
That analogy of death as a marriage, is like a line of poem gold, in the mine tunnel of the poetry world. [far out]
All cannot escape the marriage of one with death some day or other! This truth poet says wonderfully well in this poem!
A very well written poem. It conveys so vividly how much love has been displaced by one who did capture the prize. I am new to this site and this poem took much time and pain to come to fruition.
What a poem1 You can really plum the depths of his grief at losing the one he loves to another. The wedding viewed from a very different perspective. What passion.