Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WRITTEN IN HEALTH, by CAROLINE CLIVE First Line: Forbid, oh fate! Forbid that I Last Line: That end by rushing on the sun. Alternate Author Name(s): V; Meysey-wigley, Caroline Subject(s): Health | ||||||||
FORBID, oh Fate! forbid that I Should linger long before I die! Ah, let me not sad day by day Upon a dying bed decay, And learn to strain my lonely ear To catch a footstep drawing near; And oft my fainting eyelid raise, To see the friend who still delays. Let me not hear the world pass by, In all its splendour, love and pride; While I have nothing but to die, Whate'er my fellow-men betide. Nor let me come by sad degrees To feel each nobler feeling freeze; And lose my love, my hope, my strength, All save the baser part of man Concentring every wish, at length, To die as slowly as I can. Oh no! I wish, I hope, I pray A better ending to my day. I fain would mount some headlong steed, And gallop o'er the cliff at speed; Fall down a thousand fathoms there, And leave my life mid-way in air. I fain would meet in victory A winged ball aim'd full at me; Shout, as it came, my wild war-cry, And ere the sound was ended, die. I'd drink a deep delicious wine, With hasty poison mix'd therein; And with the sweetness on my breath, Die, ere I felt that it was death. I'd die in battle, love, or glee, With spirit wild, and body free, With all my wit, my soul, my heart, Burning away in every part, That so more meetly I might fly Into mine immortality; Like comets when their race is run, That end by rushing on the sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWN BY THE CARIB SEA: 2. LOS CIGARILLOS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON THE MASTECTOMY POEMS: 12. EPILOGUE: NEVERTHELESS by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER PLEASURE MIXED WITH PAIN by THOMAS WYATT IN SICKNESS (1714) by JONATHAN SWIFT THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 1. AIR by JOHN ARMSTRONG THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 2. ADVICE TO THE STOUT by JOHN ARMSTRONG THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH: BOOK 2. DIET by JOHN ARMSTRONG |
|