Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A TRAGEDY, by THEOPHILE JULIUS HENRY MARZIALS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A TRAGEDY, by                    
First Line: Death! / plop / the barges down in the river flop
Last Line: Plop.
Alternate Author Name(s): Marzials, Theo; Marzials, Theophile Jules Henri
Subject(s): Death; Life; Love; Soul; Tragedy; Dead, The


Death!
Plop.
The barges down in the river flop.
Flop, plop,
Above, beneath.
From the slimy branches the grey drips drop,
As they scraggle black on the thin grey sky,
Where the black cloud rack-hackles drizzle and fly
To the oozy waters, that longue and flop
On the black scrag piles, where the loose cords plop,
As the raw wind whines in the thin tree-top.
Plop, plop.
And scudding by
The boatmen call out hoy! and hey!
And all is running in water and sky,
And my head shrieks -- "Stop,"
And my heart shrieks -- "Die."

* * *

My thought is running out of my head;
My love is running out of my heart;
My soul runs after, and leaves me as dead,
For my life runs after to catch them -- and fled
They are all every one! -- and I stand, and start,
At the water that oozes up, plop and plop,
On the barges that flop
And dizzy me dead.
I might reel and drop.
Plop
Dead.

And the shrill wind whines in the thin tree-top.
Flop, plop.

* * *

A curse on him.
Ugh! yet I knew -- I knew --
If a woman is false can a friend be true?
It was only a lie from beginning to end --
My Devil -- my "Friend"
I had trusted the whole of my living to!
Ugh! and I knew!
Ugh!
So what do I care,
And my head is as empty as air --
I can do,
I can dare,
(Plop, plop,
The barges flop
Drip, drop.)

I can dare, I can dare!
And let myself all run away with my head,
And stop.
Drop
Dead.
Plop, flop.
Plop.





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