Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VALERIAN, by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB First Line: There's a plant, valerian Last Line: Left to mere valerian? Subject(s): Farewell; London; Tyranny & Tyrants; Parting; Dictators | ||||||||
There's a plant, valerian, Flowering where few others can: How it comes there, no-one knows, But where fire has been it grows; And in London burnt and bare Bursts its way up everywhere. Is this same valerian Nature's substitute for man? Not a plant of any price, Not a civic edelweiss, But a desultory weed, Casual growth of casual seed. Is it rooted in "goodbye," 'Vale,' that Imperial cry Heard at the Decline and Fall When the Roman left the Wall, Wall and Tower and Barbican Left to mere valerian? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LITANY FOR DICTATORSHIPS by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET FIN-DE-SIECLE BLUES by CAROLYN KIZER EPITAPH ON A TYRANT by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN SIGISMONDA AND GUISCARDO by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF 27 B.C. by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS AN EPISTLE TO CURIO by MARK AKENSIDE BEYOND THE BARS by GEORGE E. BOWEN TO AN ANTIQUE STILETTO by BERTON BRALEY AMONG THE LAKES by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB AN EPITAPH (AFTER THE GREEK EPIGRAMS) by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB |
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