Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VOLITAIRE TO A YOUNG MAN, by BRADLEY WELCH First Line: You say, my friend, you do not understand Last Line: Delights my ear. Perhaps you too, were caught. Subject(s): Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet De; Yale University | ||||||||
You say, my friend, you do not understand How God (your God) can let you suffer pain, Why He permits the wrong to conquer right, Or rears a hope, to let it die again. Well, last night, in haste, I crushed a rose That lay o'erbowed upon its slender tree, While rushing heedless to the evening tryst. 'Twas not my fault. Perhaps He does not see. You say, my friend, you do not understand How God (your God) can strike your guiltless breast, How He can bear to wither all your hopes, Why He destroys your good and leaves the rest. Well, 'twas but an afternoon ago, I wandered through a meadow, musing, sad. A butterfly disturbed my thought. In rage I struck. It fell. Perhaps your good is bad. You say, my friend, you do not understand How God (your God), who knows the worst in all, Can let this tragedy of things play on, And not, in mercy, let the curtain fall. Well, in yonder cage, there pines a bird, And better far for him, if all were naught. And yet his color charms my eye, his voice Delights my ear. Perhaps you too, were caught. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLADE OF MYSELF AND MONSIEUR RABELAIS by LEONARD BACON (1887-1954) THE BALLADE OF THE GOLDEN HORN by LEONARD BACON (1887-1954) DEATH AND THE MONK by ARTHUR E. BAKER PASSIO XL MARTYRUM by ARTHUR E. BAKER THE LAST BALLADE; MASTER FRANCOIS VILLON LOQUITUR by THOMAS BEER WERE IT ONLY NOW by A. W. BELL AS FROM THE PAST -- by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE LINE MEN by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE STORY OF THE ASHES AND THE FLAME by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON |
|