O MY most bitter mood, O descending hour, plunge in the crater of myself, And steep decline among flames, faces, torments, darkness! I had forgotten -- I had forgotten the madness of life -- The blood-drinker, Time, was forgotten, the loveparter, Death, And those gibbering ghosts, my ancestors. Horror bore us: as if the gorge of Night rose, becoming worlds: And on the inhospitable shores of the planet we were born, And driven before the elements, and whipped, falling, to death... We rear cities, crowding them with lights: We try to forget with shows and busy toil: But under it all the tide, the tide bearing us out. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ROSE AND THE BEE by SARA TEASDALE THE VOLUNTEER by HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH THE OLD BRIDGE AT FLORENCE; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 49. WILLOWWOOD (1) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI BORDER BALLAD [OR MARCH, OR SONG], FR. THE MONASTERY by WALTER SCOTT THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: MAY by EDMUND SPENSER THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING by WALT WHITMAN |