Jump to content

Near and Far (Blunden)/The Author's Last Words to his Students

From Wikisource
Near and Far
by Edmund Blunden
The Author's Last Words to his Students
4706826Near and Far — The Author's Last Words to his StudentsEdmund Blunden
The Author's Last Words to his Students[1]
Forgive what I, adventuring highest themes,Have spoiled and darkened, and the awkward handThat longed to point the moral of man's dreamsAnd shut the wicket-gates of fairyland:   So by too harsh intrusion   Left colourless confusion.
For even the glories that I most revered,Seen through my gloomed perspective in strange mood,Were not what to our British seers appeared;I spoke of peace, I made a solitude,   Herding with deathless graces   My hobbling commonplaces.
Forgive that eyeless lethargy which chilledYour ardours and I fear dimmed much fine gold—What your bright passion, leaping ages, thrilledTo find and claim, and I yet dared withhold;   These and all chance offences   Against your finer senses.
And I will ever pray for your souls' health,Remembering how, deep-tasked yet eager-eyed,You loved imagination's commonwealth,Following with smiling wonder a frail guide   Who hears beyond the ocean   The voice of your devotion.
  1. In the school of English Literature, at the Tokyo Imperial University, 1924-1927.