Song For The Last Act in  General   

Now that I have your face by heart, I look
Less at its features than its darkening frame
Where quince and melon, yellow as young flame,
Lie with quilled dahlias and the shepherd's crook.
Beyond, a garden, There, in insolent ease
The lead and marble figures watch the show
Of yet another summer loath to go
Although the scythes hang in the apple trees.

Now that I have your face by heart, I look.

Now that I have your voice by heart, I read
In the black chords upon a dulling page
Music that is not meant for music's cage,
Whose emblems mix with words that shake and bleed.
The staves are shuttled over with a stark
Unprinted silence. In a double dream
I must spell out the storm, the running stream.
The beat's too swift. The notes shift in the dark.

Now that I have your voice by heart, I read.

Now that I have your heart by heart, I see
The wharves with their great ships and architraves;
The rigging and the cargo and the slaves
On a strange beach under a broken sky.
O not departure, but a voyage done!
The bales stand on the stone; the anchor weeps
Its red rust downward, and the long vine creeps
Beside the salt herb, in the lengthening sun.

Now that I have your heart by heart, I see.

By Louise Bogan

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Other poems by Louise Bogan:

• A Tale
• Betrothed
• Chanson Un Peu Naïve
• Epitaph For A Romantic Woman
• Knowledge
• Last Hill In A Vista
• Man Alone
• Medusa
• Men Loved Wholly Beyond Wisdom
• Portrait
• Roman Fountain
• Solitary Observation Brought Back From A Sojourn I
• Song For The Last Act
• Sonnet
• Tears In Sleep
• The Alchemist
• The Crossed Apple
• The Dream
• The Frightened Man
• Women
• Words For Departure