Venice masks

Thursday 31 December 2020

End of a Year - Julian Symons

And in this year now
Remember all the harm.
The watcher on the hill
Weeps the heroic end
And under look of eyes
Or the bold clasp of hands
The lovers know their wrong.

Sleeplessly on the hill
They remember death’s eyes.
Their expected soon is now;
Although the hyacinth hands
Never knew any harm
This year’s violent end
Makes notable their wrong.

Summer was taking hands
To the blonde hair and eyes.
Now snow lies on the hill.
The year doses now,
The watcher knows the end
Of a time, though still our harm,
The dear inherited wrong.

Murmers over the hill
Nothing can be said now
But that the meeting eyes,
But that the loved hands,
But that the flowering end
Are tribal, meaning harm,
Are final, meaning wrong.

Julian Symons (1912–1994) England
Source: Poetry September 1940, Vol. LVI, No. VI (Poetry Foundation)

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