Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TIME AND LIFE, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Time, thy name is sorrow, says the stricken Last Line: Nay, but rest. Subject(s): Grief; Life; Roundels; Time; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
I. TIME, thy name is sorrow, says the stricken Heart of life, laid waste with wasting flame Ere the change of things and thoughts requicken, Time, thy name. Girt about with shadow, blind and lame, Ghosts of things that smite and thoughts that sicken Hunt and hound thee down to death and shame. Eyes of hours whose paces halt or quicken Read in bloodred lines of loss and blame, Writ where cloud and darkness round it thicken, Time, thy name. II. Nay, but rest is born of me for healing, -- So might haply time, with voice represt, Speak: is grief the last gift of my dealing? Nay, but rest. All the world is wearied, east and west, Tired with toil to watch the slow sun wheeling Twelve loud hours of life's laborious quest. Eyes forspent with vigil, faint and reeling, Find at last my comfort, and are blest, Not with rapturous light of life's revealing -- Nay, but rest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS A BALLAD OF DEATH by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE |
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