Once -- but no matter when -- There lived -- no matter where -- A man, whose name -- but then I need not that declare. He -- well, he had been born, And so he was alive; His age -- I details scorn -- Was somethingty and five. He lived -- how many years I truly can't decide; But this one fact appears: He lived -- until he died. "He died," I have averred, But cannot prove 'twas so, But that he was interred, At any rate, I know. I fancy he'd a son, I hear he had a wife: Perhaps he'd more than one, I know not, on my life! But whether he was rich, Or whether he was poor, Or niether -- both -- or which, I cannot say, I'm sure. I can't recall his name, Or what he used to do: But then -- well, such is fame! 'Twill so serve me and you. And that is why I thus About this unknown man Would fain create a fuss, To rescue, if I can. From dark oblivion's blow, Some record of his lot: But, ah! I do not know Who -- where -- when -- why -- or what. In this brief pedigree A moral we should find -- But what it ought to be Has quite escaped my mind! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOHN MOULDY by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE THE JOURNEY by EMILY DICKINSON ULTIMA THULE: MY CATHEDRAL by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE HUSKERS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER UNINITIATED by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE |