LOUISE BOGAN - "Song for the Last Act"

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.