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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
STANZAS; PARAPHRASE OF PSALM: 145, by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE Poet's Biography First Line: At length, my soul! Thy fruitless hopes give o'er Last Line: Forgot of ev'ry friend, and ev'ry slave! | |||
At length, my soul! thy fruitless hopes give o'er, Believe, believe the treach'rous world no more. Shallow, yet swift, the stream of fortune flows, Which some rude mind will always discompose; As children birds, so men their bliss pursue, Still out of reach, tho' ever in their view. In vain, for all that empty greatness brings, We lose our lives amidst the courts of kings, And suffer scorn, and bend the supple knee; The monarch dies -- one moment's turn destroys Long future prospects, and short present joys: Oh unperforming, false mortality! All is but dust, when once their breath is fled; The fierce, the pompous majesty lyes dead! The world no longer trembles at their pow'r! Ev'n in those tombs where their proud names survive, Where still in breathing brass they seem to live, Th' impartial worms that very dust devour. The lofty styles of happy, glorious great, The Lords of fortune, Arbiters of fate, And Gods of war, lye lost within the grave! Their mighty minions then come tumbling down, They lose their flatt'rers as they lose their crown, Forgot of ev'ry friend, and ev'ry slave! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONSOLATION TO M. DU PERRIER by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE CONSOLATION; TO M. DUPERRIER, ON THE DEATH OF HIS DAUGHTER by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE ON MARIE DE BOURBON by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE ON THE DEATH OF HIS SON by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE ON THE DEPARTURE OF VISCOUNTESS D'AUCHY by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE TO CARDINAL RICHELIEU by FRANCOIS DE MALHERBE WHITE NOCTURNE by CONRAD AIKEN MAGDALEN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON THE EXPECTED GENERAL RISING OF THE FRENCH NATION IN 1792 by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |
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