Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SUCCESSOR, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SUCCESSOR, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I closed the door behind me
Last Line: Where she waited—me!
Subject(s): Farewell; Love; Parting


I closed the door behind me.
"Now, she needs you. Come!"
Said my rasping voice. "So! You find me!"
Said his great eyes, glaring dumb. ...
"She has said it. If you but reach to her
One reluctant hand
She is yours!" ... "Then, take this speech to her—
And understand!"

"I have found this life no garden,"
Said his voice in the gloom.
"Taunts that scar and hates that harden;
Not a whit of sun or bloom.
Why then should I go back to her
For love long dead?
Though she chirrup all hearts in a pack to her—
Not mine!" he said.

"Young man, young man so froward
With your easy pity,
Think you that I turned the coward
When her whimsies took the city?
But, when twisting that or this to her
Approved design,
Could I ogle and blow a kiss to her,
With love like mine?

"Now a selfish and pleasant liver,
Am I that—I?
Love's a deep eternal river
Or the shallows soon run dry.
Though dreams maunder, though flesh burn to her,
For her own soul's sake
There is no way to return to her
After our mistake!

"Now at ease do I drift and dawdle,
Quaff life free and glad?
But love's wine as a sick heart's caudle—
There's the draught that drives men mad!
And my whims, and what were they to her?
Like as I thought hers
No doubt! ... So I bade good-day to her.
Call them off, the curs!"

That was all. The bitter cry of it!
As I left at last
I pondered, "These great hearts die of it,
Man or woman, so miscast."
Yet—his chance—and 'twas naught he sought of her;
So my heart sang free
To the yearning, burning thought of her,
Where she waited—me!





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