What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
1920
Shorty
Modernism
2020
Death & Loss
Love & Relationships
Alliteration
the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession
Enjambment
a line break interrupting the middle of a phrase which continues on to the next line
Hyperbaton
An inversion of typical syntax (word order).
Polysyndeton
the repetition of conjunctions frequently and in close proximity in a sentence
Repetition
a recurrence of the same word or phrase two or more times
Rhyme
correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry
Sonnet
A poem with fourteen lines that traditionally uses a fixed rhyme scheme and meter.