Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHAT IS SUCCESS?, by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHAT IS SUCCESS?, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: All things are symbols; and we find
Last Line: Ere half its race be run.
Alternate Author Name(s): L. E. L.; Maclean, Letitia
Subject(s): Success


ALL things are symbols; and we find
In morning's lovely prime,
The actual history of the mind
In its own early time:
So, to the youthful poet's gaze,
A thousand colours rise, --
The beautiful which soon decays,
The buoyant which soon dies.

So does not die their influence,
The spirit owns the spell;
Memory to him is music -- hence
The magic of his shell.
He sings of general hopes and fears --
A universal tone;
All weep with him, for in his tears
They recognise their own.

Yet many a one, whose lute hangs now
High on the laurel tree,
Feels that the cypress'd dark bough
A fitter meed would be:
And still with weariness and wo
The fatal gift is won;
Many a radiant head lies low,
Ere half its race be run.





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