Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN GREY DAYS, by EMILY PAULINE JOHNSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN GREY DAYS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Measures of oil for others
Last Line: Death, will be mine.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tekahionwake
Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Heaven; Pain; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; Paradise; Suffering; Misery


MEASURES of oil for others,
Oil and red wine,
Lips laugh and drink, but never
Are the lips mine.

Worlds at the feet of others,
Power gods have known,
Hearts for the favoured round me
Mine beats, alone.

Fame offering to others
Chaplets of bays,
I with no crown of laurels,
Only grey days.

Sweet human love for others,
Deep as the sea,
God-sent unto my neighbour—
But not to me.

Sometime I'll wrest from others
More than all this,
I shall demand from Heaven
Far sweeter bliss.

What profit then to others,
Laughter and wine?
I'll have what most they covet—
Death, will be mine.





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