Lines By Heart: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth by Countee Cullen

Grace Frame recites The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth by Countee Cullen - put yourself to the test and see if you can memorise this poem to recite aloud.

The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth

“Live like the wind,” he said, “unfettered,

And love me while you can;

And when you will, and can be bettered,

Go to the better man.

For you’ll grow weary, maybe, sleeping

So long a time with me:

Like this there’ll be no cause for weeping –

The wind is always free.”

“Go when you please,” he would be saying,

His mouth hard on her own:

That’s why she stayed and loved the staying,

Contented to the bone.

And now he’s dust, and him but twenty,

Frost that was like a flame.

Her kisses on the head death bent, he

Gave answer to his name.

And now he’s dust and with dust lying

In sullen arrogance:

Death found it hard, for all his trying,

To shatter such a lance.

She laid him out as fine as any

That had a priest and ring;

She never spared a silver penny

For cost of anything.

Countee Cullen