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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MELANCHOLIA (FOR AN ENGRAVING BY ALBRECHT DURER) by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON

First Line: SO MANY YEARS I TOILED LIKE CALIBAN
Last Line: THE SUN SETS, AND A BAT FLIES PAST THE SUN.
Subject(s): DURER, ALBRECHT (1471-1528); MELANCHOLY; DEJECTION;

So many years I toiled like Caliban
To fetch the stones and earth to build my fane;
So many years I thought before the brain
Reluctant would divulge the final plan.

Years upon years to forge the invented tools
Novel, as all my temple should be new;
Years upon years to fashion and to hew
The stones that should astound a world of fools.

Now shall I build? Cui bono? -- lo, the salt
Hath lost its savour and I have no will:
What reck I now of gate or dome or vault?

Among the ruins of the thing undone
I sit and ask myself Cui bono? till
The sun sets, and a bat flies past the sun.



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