Chart back as best he might the way he'd come And not a turn but still seemed best to choose. Yet he had reached a wilderness, wherefrom He must escape or all the struggle lose. The urgency to act was thick upon him, But still he paused to place the past mistake -- Inevitable blameless by-gones stun him, His loyalties to shaping justice break. At last he saw and took, like one quite tired, The path ahead, obscure and full of stress: To see was easy, but to take required The solemn fortitude of hopelessness. His clothes are shiny now that once were napped: The liveliest beast grows somewhat seedy, trapped. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BALLADE AGAINST THE ENEMIES OF FRANCE by FRANCOIS VILLON LONG JOHN BROWN AND LITTLE MARY BELL by WILLIAM BLAKE A BETTER RESURRECTION by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE EAGLE; A FRAGMENT by ALFRED TENNYSON MOON OF LOVELINESS by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II THE WIFE'S SONG by ERNEST BENSHIMOL |