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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO A FRIEND (CHAFING AT ENFORCED IDLENESS FROM INTERRUPTED HEALTH) by WILLIAM WATSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: SOON MAY THE EDICT LAPSE, THAT ON YOU LAYS
Last Line: AND LIFE A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS MADE.
Subject(s): SICKNESS; ILLNESS;

SOON may the edict lapse, that on you lays
This dire compulsion of infertile days,
This hardest penal toil, reluctant rest!
Meanwhile I count you eminently blest,
Happy from labours heretofore well done,
Happy in tasks auspiciously begun.
For they are blest that have not much to rue --
That have not oft mis-heard the prompter's cue,
Stammered and stumbled and the wrong parts played,
And life a Tragedy of Errors made.



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