Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SHADOWS, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SHADOWS, by                    
First Line: "sometimes I smile, sometimes I sigh"
Last Line: The flowers must perish in the cold
Subject(s): Smiles


SOMETIMES I smile, sometimes I sigh,
But mostly sorrow fills my heart;
The present and the future lie,
Like two grim shadows, just apart.
I change as often as the clouds,
That on a gusty morning run
In cold and sad and solemn crowds
To bar and blind the faithful sun.

Why come these thoughts in baleful forms
To darken life's too fleeting hours,
E'en as the summer's sullen storms
That sob their gloom away in showers?
I cannot smile as others smile,
Nor yet be merry half so long;
For sorrow fills me even while
I yearn to sing a joyous song.

The knowledge that my youth is gone
Broods ever darkly on the mind;
I look, as some poor hapless one,
For what he needs but cannot find.
I long in vain for peace or rest,
And mourn each lost and faded scene,
Like some poor bird that finds its nest
All vacant where its young had been.

Pain waits on pleasure evermore,
To blanch its blush, to dim its light;
To mock it when its dreams are o'er,
When all its charms have taken flight.
And thus it is we cannot sing,
Or long be joyous, when we're old;
When summer hours have taken wing,
The flowers must perish in the cold!





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