Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHAT IS GLORY? WHAT IS FAME?, by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHAT IS GLORY? WHAT IS FAME?, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
Last Line: Ay, this is glory! — this is fame!
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, Isaac
Subject(s): Fame


What is Glory? What is Fame?
The echo of a long lost name;
A breath, an idle hour's brief talk;
The shadow of an arrant nought;
A flower that blossoms for a day,
Dying next morrow;
A stream that hurries on its way,
Singing of sorrow; ''"
The Lost drop of a bootless shower,
Shed on a sere and leafless bower ;
A rose, stuck in a dead man's breast ''"
This is the World's fame at the best!
What is Fame ? and what is Glory?
A dream ''" a jester's lying story,
To tickle fools withal, or be
A theme for second infancy;
A joke scrawled on an epitaph;
A grin at Death's own ghastly laugh;
A visioning that tempts the eye,
But mocks the touch ''" nonentity;
A rainbow, substanceless as bright,
Flitting for ever
O'er hill-top to more distant height,
Nearing us never;
A bubble, blown by fond conceit,
In very sooth itself to cheat;
The witch-fire of a frenzied brain;
A fortune, that to lose were gain;
A word of praise, perchance of blame;
The wreck of a time-bandied name, ''"
Ay, This is Glory! ''" this is Fame!





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