20 April - Roger Zelazny Poetry Month - Isle of the Dead

Today we have Isle of the Dead.  I like Francis Sandow, in part because he breaks away from the Zelazny archetype. He's an avatar of Shimbo of Darktree Tower, part scaredy-cat, part demigod, but he's also an old man, out of time,  who survived long past the time of his birth.

Thus, we match the story with When You Are Old, by William Butler Yeats. Short work, but lovely, and fitting, I think.

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.