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The Forsaken

Hyde, Robin (1906 - 1939)

Original Text: 

The Conquerors and Other Poems (London: Macmillan, 1935): 22.

1These we may help no more. They have slipped from our hands
2    Like the shining sands
3Of the castles we builded in childhood. The wind and the tide
4    Will not he denied --
5Not though a King cry "Halt!" to the hurrying waters,
6To the streaming manes that are grasped by the Nereid daughters.
7These we must leave for the kites, in the secret strife
8    Of a quarrelling life.
9Spent is their golden laughter. Haggard and poor
10    They shall pass by our door --
11And it may be that out of their breaking, some music is wrung,
12But never for us has the strange blind wanderer sung.

Notes

6] Nereid: in the Greek tradition, any of the sea nymphs, one of the fifty daughters of the sea god Nereus. Back to Line
Publication Start Year: 
1935
Publication Notes: 

The Conquerors and Other Poems

RPO poem Editors: 
Cameron La Follette
Data Entry: Sharine Leung
RPO Edition: 
2012
Form: 
couplets