Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SUCCESS ALONE SEEN, by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SUCCESS ALONE SEEN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Few know of life's beginnings - men behold
Last Line: Men would behold its threshold, and despair.
Alternate Author Name(s): L. E. L.; Maclean, Letitia
Subject(s): Success


FEW know of life's beginnings -- men behold
The goal achieved; -- the warrior, when his sword
Flashes red triumph in the noonday sun,
The poet, when his lyre hangs on the palm;
The statesman, when the crowd proclaim his voice,
And mould opinion on his gifted tongue:
They count not life's first steps, and never think
Upon the many miserable hours
When hope deferred was sickness to the heart.
They reckon not the battle and the march,
The long privations of a wasted youth;
They never see the banner till unfurled.
What are to them the solitary nights,
Past pale and anxious by the sickly lamp,
Till the young poet wins the world at last
To listen to the music long his own?
The crowd attend the statesman's fiery mind
That makes their destiny; but they do not trace
Its struggle, or its long expectancy.
Hard are life's early steps; and, but that youth
Is buoyant, confident, and strong in hope,
Men would behold its threshold, and despair.





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