Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OBLIVION'S GATE, by FRANK MADISON LARNED


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OBLIVION'S GATE, by                    
First Line: I met the old year in the night
Last Line: I saw oblivion's gate ajar.
Subject(s): Time


I MET the Old Year in the night,
Hurrying up a mountain height,
Fleeing, as from a world of woe,
The wretchedness that reigned below.
He paused a moment in his flight;
I seized his hand so wan and white.
"Tell me," I said, "what hast thou there
In that urn so old and rare?"
He showed me that 't was filled with parts
Of ruined hopes and broken hearts,
Tears, curses, sighs, and useless vows, --
The things which misery allows
To man to voice his mad remorse
At being thwarted in his course.
As he fled with redoubled haste
Up the mountain's dreary waste,
I cried, "Wherefore dost thou hasten so
Toward the realms of ice and snow?"
No reply he vouchsafed me,
But in the dim light I could see
Him pointing upward and afar,
Where, guided by a dying star,
I saw Oblivion's Gate ajar.





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