Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, JOHN EVERYMAN, by ARCHIBALD HAMILTON RUTLEDGE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

JOHN EVERYMAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In carrying more than mortals can
Last Line: And this with all my heart I pray.
Subject(s): Flowers; Humanity; Lilies


In carrying more than mortals can
John was an ordinary man --
Of cares he was a caravan.
He staggered onward in the sun;
But for his load, he might have run.
How shamblingly his pace advanced
When joyously he might have danced!
He reached the wood at last; and then
They ambushed him -- God's highwaymen!

Ah, when he reached the wood at last
Delicious rapine followed fast --
Pillage divine, celestial rape
From which no mortal could escape.
John shivered, trembled, cried, and pled.
Their purpose steeped his heart in dread --
Had he a chance, he would have fled.

Burdened, disarmed, he faced about:
A tall oak robbed him of his doubt;
Huge elms -- those burly buccaneers --
Despoiled him of his priceless fears;
A cypress stole his fine disdain;
A dewdrop plundered him of pain;
The agate of his heart, they say,
A sunbeam melted quite away;
A laurel leaned to him and took
His aching eye, his anxious look;
A sunset-coroneted pine
Soon made him all his pride resign.

Disaster on disaster came!
Into her secret halls of flame --
The stately sorrow that he kept
Closest his heart -- a wild rose swept.
His anger -- he was sore beset --
He yielded to a violet;
Surrendered to a spray of rue
The dream that never could come true;
He gave sick hope that had been sleeping
Unto a greensward's quiet keeping;
And with a virgin lily left
A love whose heart long since was cleft.

Pillaged and joyous, ruined, glad,
Free, naked, reft of all he had,
John Everyman from yonder wood
Carried no more than mortals should;
Carried a heart for life made strong,
A hope, a faith, a friend, a song.

O traveler somewhere on the way,
May God's good thieves your path waylay --
And this with all my heart I pray.





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