Kathleen Raine
(1908-2003)

Poetry of the Human Spirit

Kathleen Raine:

Amo Ergo Sum
The Year One (1952)


Edited by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com



Amo Ergo Sum

Because I love
      The sun pours out its rays of living gold
      Pours out its gold and silver on the sea.

Because I love
      The earth upon her astral spindle winds
      Her ecstasy-producing dance.

Because I love
      Clouds travel on the winds through wide skies,
      Skies wide and beautiful, blue and deep.

Because I love
      Wind blows white sails,
      The wind blows over flowers, the sweet wind blows.

Because I love
      The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green
      The transparent sunlit trees.

Because I love
      Larks rise up from the grass
      And all the leaves are full of singing birds.

Because I love
      The summer air quivers with a thousand wings,
      Myriads of jewelled eyes burn in the light.

Because I love
      The iridescnt shells upon the sand
      Takes forms as fine and intricate as thought.

Because I love
      There is an invisible way across the sky,
      Birds travel by that way, the sun and moon
      And all the stars travel that path by night.

Because I love
      There is a river flowing all night long.

Because I love
      All night the river flows into my sleep,
      Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,
      And sleeping wake, and flowing are at rest.

Kathleen Raine (1908-2003)
Amo Ergo Sum” in The Year One,
Hamish Hamilton, London, 1952, pp. 24-25
Also: The Collected Poems of Kathleen Raine
Golgonooza Press, Ipswich, UK, 2000, pp. 76-77

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| NY Times (7-10-2003) | Philip Larkin's Review (8-16-1956) | Paradise Seed (9-16-2000) |
| Raine: Blake & Antiquity | Temenos Academy | Raine: Peace Poems | 23 Kathleen Raine Poems |



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© Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com
P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039
email: peter@wisdomportal.com (9-8-2003)