Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE POET RELATES HOW HE STOLE A LOCK OF DELIA'S HAIR, by ROBERT SOUTHEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Oh! Be the day accurst that gave me birth! Last Line: "you stupid puppyyou have spoil'd my wig!" Variant Title(s): Love Elegies Of Abel Shufflebottom: 4 Subject(s): Anger; Crime & Criminals; Despair; Hair; Man-woman Relationships; Obsessions; Wigs; Male-female Relations; Toupees; Hairpieces | ||||||||
OH! be the day accurst that gave me birth! Ye seas, to swallow me in kindness rise! Fall on me, mountains! and thou, merciful earth, Open and hide me from my Delia's eyes! Let universal chaos now return, Now let the central fires their prison burst, And earth and heaven, and air and ocean, burn For Delia frownsshe frowns, and I am curst! Oh! I could dare the fury of the fight, Where hostile millions sought my single life; Would storm volcano batteries with delight, And grapple with grim death in glorious strife. Oh! I could brave the bolts of angry Jove, When ceaseless lightnings fire the midnight skies; What is his wrath to that of her I love? What is his lightning to my Delia's eyes? Go, fatal lock! I cast thee to the wind; Ye serpent curls, ye poison-tendrils go Would I could tear thy memory from my mind, Accursed lockthou cause of all my woe! Seize the curst curls, ye furies, as they fly! Dæmons of darkness, guard the infernal roll, That thence your cruel vengeance when I die, May knit the knots of torture for my soul. Last nightOh hear me Heaven, and grant my prayer! The book of fate before thy suppliant lay, And let me from its ample records tear Only the single page of yesterday! Or let me meet old Time upon his flight, And I will stop him on his restless way; Omnipotent in love's resistless might, I'll force him back the road of yesterday. Last night, as o'er the page of love's despair, My Delia bent deliciously to grieve; I stood a treacherous loiterer by her chair, And drew the fatal scissars from my sleeve. And would that at that instant o'er my thread The shears of Atropos had open'd then; And when I reft the lock from Delia's head, Had cut me sudden from the sons of men! She heard the scissars that fair lock divide, And whilst my heart with transport panted big, She cast a fury frown on me, and cried, "You stupid puppyyou have spoil'd my wig!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MUSINGS ON THE WIG OF A SCARE-CROW by ROBERT SOUTHEY BISHOP BRUNO by ROBERT SOUTHEY BISHOP HATTO [AND THE RATS] by ROBERT SOUTHEY POEMS ON THE SLAVE TRADE: 6 by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE CATARACT OF LODORE by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE GREENWOOD SHRIFT; GEORGE III AND A DYING WOMAN IN WINDSOR FOREST by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE HOLLY TREE by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE IMMORTALITY OF LOVE by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE INCHCAPE ROCK by ROBERT SOUTHEY THE OLD MAN'S COMFORTS AND HOW HE GAINED THEM by ROBERT SOUTHEY |
|