Archibald MacLeish

Here you will find the Poem Ancestral of poet Archibald MacLeish

Ancestral

The star dissolved in evening?the one star 
The silently 
and night O soon now, soon 
And still the light now 
and still now the large 
Relinquishing 
and through the pools of blue 
Still, still the swallows 
and a wind now 
and the tree 
Gathering darkness: 
I was small. I lay 
Beside my mother on the grass, and sleep 
Came? 


slow hooves and dripping with the dark 
The velvet muzzles, the white feet that move 
In a dream water 
and O soon now soon 
Sleep and the night. 


And I was not afraid. 
Her hand lay over mine. Her fingers knew 
Darkness,?and sleep?the silent lands, the far 
Far off of morning where I should awake.