1991.1016.314.2

John Barlas (poet)

Page 3 of a poem by John Barlas which has been copied by hand onto pale grey paper. Found in the book Selections From The Poems of John Evelyn Barlas when acquired by the museum, shelf U7 . Part of the Emery Walker Library.

poem, document

handwritten, printed

Page 3 of the draft of a poem by John Barlas, possibly in Dorothy Walker’s handwriting. Found in ‘Selection from the Poems of John Barlas’. There all day long while lillies wave And rich red roses bud and bloom, But every root is in a grave, And drops each petal on a tomb; There wafts of heavy fragrance steep, The sickening soul with love or sleep, But breathing, all men surely die; There they that [straw] and they that reap Are made as one perpetually, And they that loathe and they that crave, And all that laugh and sigh. Then pause not by their flowering groves While youthful blood is red and free (the writer indicates that ‘red’ and ‘free’ are in the wrong order)) Not there the gay or thoughtless roves, Not there may mirth and music wed, But barren loves forsaken pine, And world-sick bards their garlands twine Of blossoms dripping poisoned streams, But dear to them as opiate wine, - Where death is not and life but seems, The Gardens of forgotten loves, The Garden of our dreams John Barlas