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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SOLITARY, by GERTRUDE B. GUNDERSON
First Line: Through childhood's years he struggled bitterly
Last Line: And now, they brag they went to school with him!
Subject(s): Children; Solitude; Childhood; Loneliness
First Line: Through childhood's years he struggled bitterly
Last Line: And now, they brag they went to school with him!
Subject(s): Children; Solitude; Childhood; Loneliness
Through childhood's years he struggled bitterly,
To understand the bars that shut him out
Of paradise—when roistering schoolboys
Made nature ring with mad halloo and shout.
If he won grades, they jeered at him and yelled
In impish glee; he must be kept in hand—
Like other packs, deriding what they fear,
And hating what they do not understand.
Thus, alien, groping blindlly for a goal,
He plodded slowly upward in his climb;
The drag of old-world customs in his home,
But in the new, a flaming faith, sublime. ....
Then ... after years of suffering and doubt
And drudgery, he scaled a mountain crest—
With vision clear, but pain-constricted soul
Because of loneliness, his constant guest. ...
His former playmates look with envious eyes
On his success ... Their smiles are cryptic—grim;
They know he has outrun their swiftest dart;
And now, they brag they went to school with him!
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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DISILLUSIONMENT by GERTRUDE B. GUNDERSON