Entertainment

/

ArcaMax

Inexorable Deities

Edgar Lee Masters on

Published in Poem Of The Day

Deities!
Inexorable revealers,
Give me strength to endure
The gifts of the Muses,
Daughters of Memory.
When the sky is blue as Minerva's eyes
Let me stand unshaken;
When the sea sings to the rising sun
Let me be unafraid;
When the meadow lark falls like a meteor
Through the light of afternoon,
An unloosened fountain of rapture,
Keep my heart from spilling
Its vital power;
When at the dawn
The dim souls of crocuses hear the calls
Of waking birds,
Give me to live but master the loveliness.
Keep my eyes unharmed from splendors
Unveiled by you,
And my ears at peace
Filled no less with the music
Of Passion and Pain, growth and change.
But O ye sacred and terrible powers,
Reckless of my mortality,
Strengthen me to behold a face,
To know the spirit of a beloved one
Yet to endure, yet to dare!



About this poem
"Inexorable Deities" was published in Edgar Lee Masters' collection "Starved Rock" (The Macmillan Company, 1919).

About Edgar Lee Masters
Edgar Lee Masters was born in 1868 in Garnett, Kan. He published numerous books of poetry, including "A Book of Verses" (1898), "Spoon River Anthology" (1915) and "More People" (1939). He died in Philadelphia in 1950.

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


This poem is in the public domain. Distributed by King Features Syndicate


 


Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus
 

 

Comics

Bart van Leeuwen Joey Weatherford Joel Pett Peter Kuper Mike Peters Speed Bump