<> Unpublished Poems Greacen Estate 19 Jan Linen Hall Library Wednesday, March 16, 2016 TIFF Greacen028 Manuscript The parting English https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/content/greacen028 Linen Hall Library Linen Hall Library Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA https://www.niliteraryarchive.com/sites/default/files/Greacen028_0.jpg LHL Archive The Parting The clouds are muttering for rain, While birds in solid squadrons fly from storm; The telegraphic wires sadly affirm The bleakness of a steely spring. He throws down the evening newspaper, Changes into ragged slippers, glances Down at the street where the rain Like stretched elastic falls in lengthy strings; And he takes his favourite book from, the top shelf, Almost at random, so mechanical it is. This voice speaks softly from a lost summer: "0 will you say it again ... Say it all again! Will you say it then Ae you say it now? Will you be true And can I be sure? 0 will you say it again ..." Footsteps drop like anonymous parcels. Deep, deep into the gashed night A gramophone wheedles a tired melody From the next-floor apartment: And he thinks, more desperate than angry: "I can never say it again, Never, never say it again. For the past is past And cancelled out finally.’* And yet that other voice maintains Its level melody, Its hollow, ruthless, tender, plaintive melody: "0 will you say it again ... Say it a11 again! Will you say it then As you say it now? Will you be true? And can I be sure? O will you say it again ..." Text