Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A COWARD, by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD Poet's Biography First Line: You have no right to spoil the sun Last Line: You will not dare to curse the stars! Alternate Author Name(s): Davis, Fannie Stearns Subject(s): Cowardice | ||||||||
YOU have no right to spoil the sun, Blacken the blue and blur the stars. Is your fool's-face the only one That ever pressed Life's prison-bars, And found escape too bitter-hard? And cursed the great cold Gaoler, God? Then, crooked-lipped, pain-smirched and marred, Shrieked to the peaceful folk who trod The free street still, -- "But look at me! I am so hurt. God hates me so. I know that all Eternity Is foul and false and bleared. I know!" How do you know? What right have you To show your shameful coward's face? Have you alone run ruined through Hell's wide waste-hillocked torture-place? Have you a blood-sealed pact with Pain? -- A secret tryst with Agony? Has no one else dared death, to gain The great brave soul, that wrests the key Of Freedom from God's Hand? Then swift To flee, beholds the door flung wide; And feels the Gaoler's fingers lift His face, and push his locks aside, While through his soul's last desperate dusk The great slow Eyes stare deep, stare deep; And Shame blows from him, like a husk Of Horror; and clean glories leap From those great Eyes to his, set free From all the foul and false and marred: -- "Thou! Who hast earned Eternity! Thou! With My Secret Keys to guard!" You! What know you of God, and Life? There festering to your prison-bars. Be proud! When you have won that strife You will not dare to curse the stars! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GERONTION by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: THE COWARD by RUDYARD KIPLING PHILIP, KING OF MACEDON by ALCAEUS OF MESSENE EPIGRAM by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM MARTIN RELPH by ROBERT BROWNING A BALLAD OF A COWARD by JOHN DAVIDSON THE BLIND BOXER by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE COWARD by CAROLINE GILTINAN AFTERNOON by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD |
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