Immortality by Sheila Kaye-Smith
"Immortality," by Sheila Kaye-Smith, is a poem addressed by the speaker to a lost or absent love, built around the recurring image of a single star, a single song, and a single light set against a vast, empty eternity. The speaker declares that eternity itself is a dreary thing, one they and their love will eventually weary of, so that they will turn and hide themselves instead in one sweet hour that God gave them long ago. The speaker admits that time and distance have done their work: if she and her love were to meet again in the street, she might not even know him, and each might only sigh at something half forgot. Yet within that preserved "Moment," nothing has changed — she can still kiss the beloved's face, smiling and strong, unchanged by all the years, and he holds her there unchanged by all her tears. She recalls that remembered night in detail: a dark boat making moon-swept waters hiss, his face wet with spray, spray-wet his kiss, his eyes described as stars she had set alight. Dim planets hung above trembling trees, the suck of water shook the misty air, and the darkness showed him magic in her hair and rest upon her knees. The two are likened to wandering stars falling through the sky, apart and adrift in the chilly haze, yet ablaze with one short hour's eternal ecstasy. Into that poor love of rags and tears, the poem says, the fire of life and deathless love rushed down, giving them a kingdom and setting on them a crown: all love of lovers since the dim daybreak of earth, all harmonies since music's birth, all colours since the first red dawn, the changing tunes given with the return of Springtime, the mysteries of many Junes, the stars, the trackless sea, and each other, to eternity. The speaker acknowledges that love may be gone, that the beloved is gone, but insists their almighty moment cannot die. It will stand fast when the last crumbling sphere crashes out of the ruin of the sky, when the last constellations faint and fall, when the last planets burst in fiery foam, when all the winds have sunk asleep, and when all the worn way-weary comets have come home. Beyond the flight of past, present, and future, she declares that her moment lives, that she shall hold him there, and that it lives on as her immortality — an immortality she insists he shall share. The poem returns to its opening image: one star upon the desert of the sky, one song upon the silences of night, one light upon the tossing of the stream, one moment in a blank eternity.
By Sheila Kaye-Smith · Genre: Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry · 701 words
First lines
One star upon the desert of the sky, / One song upon the silences of night, / Upon the tossing of the stream, one light, / One moment in a blank eternity.
For, O my love, eternity is drear, / And soon we both shall weary of it so, / That we shall turn and hide ourselves for fear / In that sweet hour God gave us long ago.
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Genres
- Poetry — The work is written in verse form with structured stanzas, meter, and poetic devices throughout.
- Love Poetry — The central subject is romantic love and its emotional and transcendent power, exploring a beloved's eternal significance.
- Lyric Poetry — The poem expresses personal emotion and introspection through a first-person voice reflecting on intimate feelings and moments.
- Metaphysical Poetry — The work grapples with philosophical questions about eternity, time, mortality, transcendence, and the nature of a single moment's cosmic significance.
Tags
historical-fiction · romance · british-literature · early-20th-century · character-study · mortality · legacy · memory · philosophical · literary-fiction · psychological · period-piece
What this Textopian page supports
Immortality is listed on Textopian as a poem by Sheila Kaye-Smith, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Love Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Metaphysical Poetry, Elegy
- Length: 701 words
- Structure: 1 section, 15 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Immortality by Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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