Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CURSE OF LIFE, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES


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THE CURSE OF LIFE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: All that flesh doth cover
Last Line: Till our broken being in death is hushed and still.
Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord
Subject(s): Life


ALL that flesh doth cover,
Souls of source sublime,
Are but slaves sold over
To the Master Time,
To work out their ransom for the ancient crime.

Some go meet the morrow
With industrious will, --
Others toil in sorrow,
Though their hands be still;
Man must toil for good or he shall toil for ill.

Grasping at one pleasure,
We let others fall:
Yet how scant the measure
If we sum them all, --
Honey-drops scarce tasted in a sea of gall.

Did but tears and sighs
Teach our minds to see,
With clear-piercing eyes,
Into Heaven's decree,
By this time, how wise this world of ours would be!

Knowledge worn by sadness
Grows too faint to rise, --
Anguish fathers madness, --
Labour brutifies:
If high feelings live, the Man a Martyr dies.

Sleep of freshest childhood
Hears the voice of doom; --
Rambling in the wild wood,
Culling every bloom,
Tender brows are chilled by mist from out the tomb.

Gazing on Creation
With a first love's eye,
Panting exaltation
Sinks into a sigh, --
For we learn so soon that what we love must die.

Then we try to smother
The Love-fire in our heart;
Nature, our sweet Mother,
Can no balm impart,
For she too is sick with all the self-same smart.

She would fain relieve us,
Fain our grief beguile, --
She cannot deceive us
By her outward smile,
For we know that Death torments her all the while.

In the green bud's bosom
There is secret pain,
Bees to the same blossom
Come not back again, --
Waters weep, that seem to sing a happy strain.*

The Gem of Love was shattered
Long before our birth,
Sparkles still are scattered
Over the broad Earth, --
Which some seek in vain, tho' some know not their worth.

Some may find and hold them,
Never to let go,
Hearts that would enfold them
In their vital glow, --
When Circumstance comes in and works them double woe:

Circumstance that ever
Uses wicked skill
All fond ties to sever,
Bind them as we will,
Till our broken being in Death is hushed and still.





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