Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FULL-CIRCLE, by MAXWELL ANDERSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FULL-CIRCLE, by                    
First Line: Now that the gods are gone
Last Line: And a fool -- and alone.
Subject(s): Mankind; Human Race


Now that the gods are gone,
And the kings, the gods' shadows, are gone,
Man is alone on the earth,
Thrust out with the suns, alone.

Silent he walks among
The unanswering stars of his night,
Knowing his hands are weak, that his eyes
Deceive in the light.

Knowing there is no guerdon to win
But the dark and his measure of mould,
Foreseeing the end of dream, foreseeing
Youth grow old.

Yet, knowing despair he is free,
Free of bonds, of faith, of pain.
What should frighten him now
Who has nothing to gain,

When he takes the place of the gods,
And chaos is his and the years,
And the thunderous histories of worlds
Throb loud for his ears?

Now that the gods are gone
The skies are dust in his hands;
Through his fingers they slip like dust
Blown across waste lands;

And his glance takes in beauty and grief
And the centuries coming or flown:
He is god of all ways and things --
And a fool -- and alone.





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