Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MAN, by HORACE SMITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Affliction one day, as she harked to the roar
Last Line: "and his spirit to jove who bestowed it."
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio
Subject(s): Death; Earth; Goddesses & Gods; Life; Mankind; Mythology; Dead, The; World; Human Race


AFFLICTION one day, as she harked to the roar
Of the stormy and struggling billow,
Drew a beautiful form on the sands of the shore,
With the branch of a weeping-willow.

Jupiter, struck with the noble plan,
As he roamed on the verge of the ocean,
Breathed on the figure, and calling it Man,
Endued it with life and motion.

A creature so glorious in mind and in frame,
So stamped with each parent's impression,
Among them a point of contention became,
Each claiming the right of possession.

He is mine, said Affliction; I gave him his birth,
I alone am his cause of creation;
The materials were furnished by me, answered Earth;
I gave him, said Jove, animation.

The gods, all assembled in solemn divan,
After hearing each claimant's petition,
Pronounced a definitive verdict on Man,
And thus settled his fate's disposition:

"Let Affliction possess her own child, till the woes
Of life cease to harass and goad it;
After death give his body to Earth, whence it rose,
And his spirit to Jove who bestowed it."





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