for poetry month: Maire Macrae's Song by Kathleen Raine

Maire Macrae's Song
by Kathleen Raine

The singer is old and has forgotten
Her girlhood's grief for the young soldier
Who sailed away across the ocean,
Love's brief joy and lonely sorrow;
The song is older than the singer.

The song is older than the singer
Shaped by the love and the long waiting
Of women dead and long forgotten
Who sang before remembered time
To teach the unbroken heart its sorrow.

The girl who waits for her young soldier
Learns from the cadence of the song
How deep her love, how long the waiting.
Sorrow is older than the heart,
Already old when love is young;
The song is older than the sorrow.



(Kathleen Raine is also author of "To My Mountain," which inspired Loving North)