TO A POET A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE

I who am dead a thousand years
………And wrote this sweet archaic song,
Send you my words for messengers
………The way I shall not pass along.

I care not if you bridge the seas,
………Or ride secure the cruel sky,
Or build consummate places
………Of metal or of masonry.

But have you wine and music still,
………And statues and a bright-eyed love,
And foolish thoughts of good and ill,
………And prayers to them who sit above?

How shall we conquer? Like a wind
………That falls at eve our fancies blow,
And old Mæonides the blind
………Said it a thousand years ago.

O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
………Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone:
………I was a poet, I was young.

Since I can never see your face,
………And never shake your hand,
I send my soul through time and space
………To greet you. You will understand.

David Scanlon – England – (1963 – )

Elroy Flecker, J. (2018) Collected Poems: New Translations.  The Foolish Poet Press, Wilmslow, England. TO A POET A THOUSAND YEARS HENCE. Page Number XI.

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James Elroy Flecker – England – (1884 – 1915)

Elroy Flecker, J. (1918) “The Selected Poems of James Elroy Flecker”.  Martin Secker Ltd: London (Page 1)

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