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 | Cumbria Times A Voice of the Free Press |
Steve Whitaker
Literary Editor
@stevewh16944270
12:00 AM 21st September 2024
arts
Poem Of The Week: Parta Quies By A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
Parta Quies
Good-Night; ensured release,
Imperishable peace,
Have these for yours,
While sea abides, and land,
And earth’s foundations stand,
And heaven endures.
When earth’s foundations flee,
Nor sky nor land nor sea
At all is found,
Content you, let them burn:
It is not your concern;
Sleep on, sleep sound.
Good-Night; ensured release,
Imperishable peace,
Have these for yours,
While sea abides, and land,
And earth’s foundations stand,
And heaven endures.
When earth’s foundations flee,
Nor sky nor land nor sea
At all is found,
Content you, let them burn:
It is not your concern;
Sleep on, sleep sound.
Image by HtoH from Pixabay
As ‘Parta Quies’ processes, Housman’s somber intonation becomes increasingly persuasive. ‘Rest’, in the maelstrom of such forces, is not sleep at all, but rather, annihilation. The point at which religion and all corporeal considerations disappear in the conflagration – ‘let them burn’ is pronounced with the triumph of inviolate certainty – is rendered ironic in Housman’s closing line, whose sibilance describes a somnolence entirely at odds with the overwhelming sense of finitude.