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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LIFE, by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN Poet's Biography
First Line: O life of man, if life 'tis meet to call
Last Line: With zigzags of the will, and kindly oneness marred.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, T. E.
Subject(s): Life
First Line: O life of man, if life 'tis meet to call
Last Line: With zigzags of the will, and kindly oneness marred.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, T. E.
Subject(s): Life
O LIFE of man, if life 'tis meet to call
This rolling with a rolling ball
Some seventy periods round the sun --
O life, that only art to have begun
A life, then straight art not a life at all.
O rigid curve mechanical,
If thou wert only absolute,
If all our energies were summed in thee,
If one great pathos thrilled the iron ring,
If, points upon the circle, fixed and mute
We felt the dominant spring
And strain of power, then were it blest to be! --
Not death would all be death, if, truly free,
We had the motion of the sphere,
If no quick atom jarred
Oblique, and crossed the act divine,
And vexed the loyal round with idiot cheer
Of self, and scrabbled all the line
With zigzags of the will, and kindly oneness marred.
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