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To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence -- James Elroy Flecker

Guest poem submitted by a poster who wishes to remain anonymous
(Poem #1225) 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 palaces
 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 Maeonides the blind
 Said it three 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 you by the hand,
 I send my soul through time and space
 To greet you. You will understand.
-- James Elroy Flecker
Note: Maeonides is Homer.

Have always enjoyed poetry, and I came across this poem first almost 40 years
ago and was struck by what it said to me about how poets could communicate
ideas across space and time; and also about loneliness. It was reinforced in
1995 when I first discovered email and the web - the last paragraph in
particular being particularly poignant, especially since my elder daughter
was about to leave to study overseas. Now that both daughters have left home
and are each half a world away I am even more grateful for the Web.

[Martin adds]

Flecker is a rich and popular source of titles; today's poem provided Clarke
with his "The Cruel Sky", and permeates the following piece:

[broken link] http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/sciencefiction/story/0,6000,415880,00.html

20 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

monica bathija said...

The Flecker poem just brought to mind this one by Rabindranath Tagore
.. urging you to catch a whiff of flowers that once bloomed a hundred
years ago..

Who are you, reader, reading my poems an hundred years hence? I cannot
send you one single flower from this wealth of the spring, one single
streak of gold from yonder clouds. Open your doors and I look abroad.
From your blossoming garden gather fragrant memories of the vanished
flowers of an hundred years before. In the joy of your heart may you
feel the living joy that sang one spring morning, sending its glad
voice across an hundred years.

The poem is from his collection The Gardener.

=====
Trust in your Dreams
their night gleams know
what seems is true.

Rick Bigwood said...

Admirers of this poem might enjoy its setting to orchestral music by Gerald
Finzi (who, like Flecker, also died at a young age); vocals by John Mark
Ainsley; orchestra the City of London Sinfonia. The CD is released by
Chandos (Finzi, Violin Concerto, etc.), and is conducted by Richard Hickox.
There are some exquisite Thomas Hardy poems on it as well.

Jenni Kemp said...

Listen to this poem set to music by the English Composer Gerald Finzi if you can. It's wonderful!

Anonymous said...

I have roamed the world and found poetry-great poetry that is-a tremendous consolation.The poets seem to know or sense something denied to us who cannot verse or rhyme.I thank Miss Monica Bathija for her triplet.

viagra said...

James Elroy Flecker's poetry is so overrated al his poem are such a bore and his only novel is complete pain to read. I hate Tagore and his cheap sentimentalism too.

david_o said...

We (Osborne Jones) just put out a album of (what we thought) is the best of Mr Flecker. We are big fans - and think some of his stuff is terrific. You can hear a podcast about this at...
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-was-a-poet-i-was-young-ipod/id450090494

or the whole album at osbornejones.bandcamp.com

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Anonymous said...

I'm 11 and I picket this poem for declamation (declamation: declaim poems in front of the school, I love it) we have to pic from a specific book, and this book had this poem in it and as sone as I read it I fell in love with it. The way he expresses him self and words he used it was amassing. So I wanted to learn more about him and the poem and I did.

P.S. The book I found the poem from is called "The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children ( children's classics)"

Anonymous said...

I wrote the comment on top sorry for the spelling mistakes.

Anonymous said...

I love Flecker's poetry especially "To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence", also love "Gates of Damascus"

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