First World War Poetry Digital Archive

To Eros

TO EROS by WILFRED OWEN In that I loved you, Love, I worshipped you; In that I worshipped well, I sacrificed. All of most worth I bound and burnt and slew: The innocent small things, fair friends and Christ. I slew all falser loves, I slew all true, For truth is the prime lie men tell a boy. Glory I cast away, as bridegrooms do Their splendid garments in their haste of joy. But when I fell and held your sandalled feet, You laughed; you loosed away my lips; you rose. I heard the singing of your wings' retreat; And watched you, far-flown, flush the Olympian snows, Beyond my hoping. Starkly I returned To stare upon the ash of all I burned.

Citation

“To Eros,” by Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918). The Estate of Wilfred Owen. The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen edited by Jon Stallworthy first published by Chatto & Windus, 1983. Preliminaries, introductory, editorial matter, manuscripts and fragments omitted. via First World War Poetry Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, http://ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/3366.

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