Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONFESSIO AMANTIS, by WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (1817-1901)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONFESSIO AMANTIS, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: I still can suffer pain
Alternate Author Name(s): Channing Ii, William Ellery
Subject(s): Transcendentalism


I STILL can suffer pain;
I strive and hope in vain;
My wounds may not all heal,
Nor time their depth reveal.


So dreamed I, of a summer day,
As in the oak's cool shade I lay,
And thought that shining, lightsome river
Went rippling, rippling on forever: -


That I should bend with pain,
Should sing and love in vain;
That I should fret and pine,
And hopeless thought define.


I want a true and simple heart,
That asks no pleasure in a part,
But seeks the whole; and finds the soul,
A heart at rest, in sure control.


I shall accept all I may have,
Or fine or foul, or rich or brave;
Accept that measure in life's cup,
And touch the rim and raise it up.


Some drop of Time's strange glass it holds,
So much endurance it enfolds;
Or base and small, or broadly meant,
I cannot spill God's element.


Dion or C…sar drained no more,
Not Solon, nor a Plato's lore;
So much had they the power to do,
So much hadst thou, and equals too.






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