Classic and Contemporary Poetry
QUESTION, by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS Poet's Biography First Line: Shall it be after the long misery Last Line: To feel the sole impossibility. Alternate Author Name(s): Howells, W. D. Subject(s): Death; Dead, The | ||||||||
Shall it be after the long misery Of easeless pillows, and the waste of flesh In sickness, till some worn and widening mesh Frays out at last, and lets the soul go free? Or, shall some violent accident suddenly Dismiss it, or some black cloud in the brain Lower till life maddens against life amain? Where, in what land, or on what lonely sea? When, in the light of what unrisen sun? Under what fatal planet? There is none Can tell, or know aught but that it shall be: The one thing certain which all other things Have taught my being in its inmost springs To feel the sole impossibility. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND |
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