Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LINES, by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT Poet Analysis First Line: Look not upon the past - the mournful past Last Line: For thee the shame and sorrow of the past. Alternate Author Name(s): Ellet, Elizabth F. | ||||||||
LOOK not upon the past -- the mournful past. In its stern grasp the joys and hopes of youth -- The forms that smiled upon us, wreath'd with light Then beaming from the morning sky of life -- Are held: -- the forms to which affection clung; Towards which the lone and stricken spirit yearns; And the grim gaoler will not let them go! Far off and dimly seen, like buried wealth In cold dark ocean caves -- the treasures lie, While o'er them rolls th' impenetrable deep, And its hoarse murmur wails the ever lost. Look not upon the past -- the bitter past. Its spectral pageants haunt thee! -- Darkly there Gathers a throng, from whose pursuing gaze Thou fain would'st turn away. The hours misspent -- The wasted energies -- the gifts abused -- The feelings wrong'd -- the blighted hopes -- stand there The sins thou deemedst trivial, and the world Deem'd virtues haply, tower to giant height, And flout thee with their scorn. The hidden crimes Cast off their mask, and fill thee with affright. Time, that relentless creditor, there stands, Presenting his account, and bidding thee Tremble at his dread records, and prepare The reckoning to abide. Look not upon The past -- the gloomy past. 'T is stoled in grief. 'T is the domain of evil -- dark and sad To human eyes, -- the mournful prison-house Of human woes and errors. There, too, broods The cloud of wrath divine. Thou may'st forget -- Is the kind sentence Heaven writes out for man. Forget thy years of folly -- years of crime. Lo, the unstained future! 't is thine own, With all its glorious aims, its boundless hopes, And thou may'st claim this bright inheritance Free from all hindrance -- so the eye of faith Be fix'd on Him who was content to bear For thee the shame and sorrow of the past. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SODUS BAY by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT SONNET by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT SONNET by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT SUSQUEHANNA by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT THE DELAWARE WATER-GAP by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT THE DYING GIRL'S MESSAGE by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT THE LEAVES OF THE TREE HIDE THE SUN by DAVID IGNATOW TO A FRIEND WRITING ON CABARET DANCERS by EZRA POUND THE PARTING OF THE WAYS by JOSEPH BENSON GILDER |
|