Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A PHOTOGRAPHER, by BERTON BRALEY


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TO A PHOTOGRAPHER, by             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have known joy and woe and toil and fight
Last Line: They are my scars of battle — put them back!
Subject(s): Aging; Disdain; Photography & Photographers; Time; Scorn


I have known joy and woe and toil and fight
I have lived largely, I have dreamed and planned,
And Time, the sculptor, with a master hand,
Upon my face has wrought for all men's sight
The lines and seams of Life, of growth and blight,
Of struggle and of service and command;
And now you show me This — this waxen, bland
And placid face — unlined, untroubled, white!
This is not I — this fatuous face you show
Retouched and prettified and smoothed to please,
Put back the wrinkles and the lines I know;
I have spent blood and brain achieving these,
Out of the pain, the sorrow and the wrack,
They are my scars of battle — PUT THEM BACK!





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