Explore "To Sorrow" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ I. O tear-eyed goddess of the marble brow, / Who showerest snows of tresses on the night / Of anguished temples! lonely watcher, thou / Who bendest o'er the couch of life's dead light! / Who in the hollow hours of night's noon / Rockest the cradle of the child, / Whose fever-blooded eyeballs seek the moon / To cool their pulses wild. / Thou who dost stoop to kiss a sister's cheek, / Which rules the alabastar death with youth; / Thou who art mad and strangely meek, -- / Empress of passions, couth, uncouth, / We kneel to thee!
/ II. O Sorrow, when the sapless world grows white, / And singing gathers on her springtide robes, / On some bleak steep which takes the ruby light / Of day, braid in thy locks the spirit globes / Of cool, weak snowdrops dashed with frozen dew, / And hasten to the leas below / Where Spring may wandered be from the rich blue / Which rims yon clouds of snow. / From the pied crocus and the violet's hues, / Think then how thou didst rake the bosoming snow, / To show some mother the soft blues / Of baby eyes, the sparkling glow / Of dimple-dotted cheeks.