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Stillness


By James Elroy Flecker



 

When the words rustle no more,
And the last work's done,
When the bolt lies deep in the door,
And Fire, our Sun,
Falls on the dark-laned meadows of the floor;

When from the clock's last time to the next chime
Silence beats his drum,
And Space with gaunt grey eyes and her brother Time
Wheeling and whispering come,
She with the mould of form and he with the loom of rhyme,

Then twittering out in the night my thought-birds flee,
I am emptied of all my dreams:
I only hear Earth turning, only see
Ether's long bankless streams,
And only know I should drown if you
Laid not your hand on me.



 

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) was born in London the eldest son of a Headmaster. He studied Oriental Languages at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities before commencing a career in the Foreign Office where he had postings in Constantinople, Smyrna and Beirut. His health unfortunately was never good, and he was forced to take regular leave of absence from his postings to return to England and Switzerland for treatment. He died in Davos, Switzerland, on January 3rd, 1915, at the tender age of thirty and is buried in Cheltenham, England, at the foot of the Cotswold Hills. His death was described by one contemporary (MacDonald, 1924) as "unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats".


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