Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE TYRANT, by ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY Poet's Biography First Line: One comes with foot insistent to my / door Last Line: "o tyrant death!" Subject(s): Tyranny & Tyrants | ||||||||
ONE comes with foot insistent to my door, Calling my name; Nor voice nor footstep have I heard before, Yet clear the calling sounds and o'er and o'er It seems the sunlight burns along the floor With paler flame! "'Tis vain to call with morning on the wing, With noon so near, With Life a dancer in the masque of Spring And Youth new wedded with a golden ring When falls the night and birds have ceased to sing My heart may hear! "'Tis vain to pause. Pass, friend, upon your way! I may not heed; Too swift the hours; too sweet, too brief the day: Only one life, one spring, one perfect May I crush each moment, with its sweets to stay Life's joyous greed! "Call not again! The wind is roaming by Across the heath The Wind's a tell-tale and will bear your sigh To dim the smiling gladness of the sky Or kill the spring's first violets that lie In purple sheath "If you must call, call low! My heart grows still, Still as my breath, Still as your smile, O Ancient One! A chill Strikes through the sun upon the windowsill I know you nowI follow where you will, O tyrant Death!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LITANY FOR DICTATORSHIPS by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET FIN-DE-SIECLE BLUES by CAROLYN KIZER EPITAPH ON A TYRANT by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN SIGISMONDA AND GUISCARDO by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO THE GOOD OLD DAYS OF 27 B.C. by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS AN EPISTLE TO CURIO by MARK AKENSIDE A CHRISTMAS CHILD by ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY |
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