257. To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence by James Elroy Flecker
b'Flecker read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\n http://classicpoetryaloud.podomatic.com/\\n \\n Giving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n \\n ---------------------------------------------------\\n \\n To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence\\n by James Elroy Flecker\\n \\n I who am dead a thousand years,\\n And wrote this sweet archaic song,\\n Send you my words for messengers\\n The way I shall not pass along.\\n I care not if you bridge the seas,\\n Or ride secure the cruel sky,\\n Or build consummate palaces\\n Of metal or of masonry.\\n \\n But have you wine and music still,\\n And statues and a bright-eyed love,\\n And foolish thoughts of good and ill,\\n And prayers to them who sit above?\\n \\n How shall we conquer? Like a wind\\n That falls at eve our fancies blow,\\n And old Moeonides the blind\\n Said it three thousand years ago.\\n \\n O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,\\n Student of our sweet English tongue,\\n Read out my words at night, alone:\\n I was a poet, I was young.\\n \\n Since I can never see your face,\\n And never shake you by the hand,\\n I send my soul through time and space\\n To greet you. You will understand.\\n \\n\\n\\nFirst aired: 30 July 2007\\n\\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\\n\\nReading \\xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2008'