IF I were other than, alas, I am, A soul in strife, whom banded foemen vex, If toil were folly and good deeds a sham, And hydra wrong had shed its serpent necks, And life's dark problems could no more perplex, How sweet it were, forgotten of all blame, In that far garden which your summer decks To dream with you that grief was but a name. Ay, dream! For waking which of us were wise To spell grief's epitaph? Some tears must be Even in the herald hour of your sunrise. And in the night? Ah, child, what misery, Think you, awaits us when life's flood-gates strain To the full deluge of the descending rain? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OUTIDANA: A DIRGE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 3. AFTER THE CLUB-DANCE by THOMAS HARDY BINSEY POPLARS (FELLED 1879) by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS OVERHEARD ON A SALTMARSH by HAROLD MONRO BEETHOVEN'S SEVENTH SYMPHONY by LYMAN WHITNEY ALLEN |