have you come across...

[amanda_isabel]

guys, i need help here...
have you come across a poem entitled, 'portrait of a man drowning', a poem by the actor richard burton? i've searched the net and there were poems that came out in the results with similar titles but they weren't by richard burton. if you do come across it, please post it here or send me a PM. thanks in advance...

[antiquary]

Apparently the poem was discovered very recently among Burton's papers. It goes like this:

Portrait of a Man Drowning

The mountain earth feels damp against my hand;
Around me sway a thousand sap-filled stalks
Of tender grass; The cows browse drowsily
Below me in the fields, and silly sheep
Bleat so pathetically. Dusk descends
And makes the cool earth cooler; lovers slow
In Sunday best drift past like ghosts of laughs
And murmurings; and some go up and some
Go down the mountain.
I see the gamblers hide behind some hedge or shade,
And play silently between desterity
Of toil's blunt fingers shuffling dirty cards;
And panting greyhounds run a merry race around them
In the fading light.
There is no life stir now
There is no hub-bub of activity;
The rushing of the whispering waterfall
Breathes silence on the mad tormented valley.
The voices rise insidiously as is
The creeping dusk "Abide with me'', they moan,
A hundred coal-fogged voices harmoniously
Goad up in an ecstasy of melancholy magic;
All is still.
And there were things that made me;
Grew around the core of my young soul,
But I have other worlds for whom to weep;
I shall return no more.

[amanda_isabel]

antiquary..
thanks