Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PATIENCE TAUGHT BY NATURE, by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PATIENCE TAUGHT BY NATURE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O dreary life,' we cry, 'o dreary life!'
Last Line: Grows by, contented through the heat and cold.
Subject(s): Nature; Patience; Religion; Theology


'O DREARY life,' we cry, 'O dreary life!'
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven's true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle! Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land, savannah-swards
Unweary sweep, hills watch unworn, and rife
Meek leaves drop yearly from the forest-trees
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory: O thou God of old,
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these! --
But so much patience as a blade of grass
Grows by, contented through the heat and cold.





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