Classic and Contemporary Poetry
LIFE'S INCONGRUITIES, by EGBERT PHELPS First Line: Green grows the laurel on the bank Last Line: Too much of joy would wean from heaven. Subject(s): Life | ||||||||
Green grows the laurel on the bank, Dark waves the pine upon the hill, Green hangs the lichen, cold and dank, Dark springs the heartsease by the rill, Age-mosses clamber ever bright, Pale is the water-lily's bloom; Thus Life still courts the shades of night, And beauty hovers o'er the tomb. So, all through life, incongruous hue Each object wears from childhood down; The evanescentheaven's blue, The all-enduringsober brown; Our brightest dreams too quickly die, And griefs are green that should be old, And joys that sparkle to the eye Are like a tale that's quickly told. And yet't is but the golden mean That checks our lives' unsteady flow; God's counterbalance thrown between, To poise the scale 'twixt joy and woe: And better so; for were the bowl Too freely to the parched lip given, Too much of grief would crush the soul, Too much of joy would wean from heaven. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRIVILEGE OF BEING by ROBERT HASS SEAWATER STIFFENS CLOTH by JANE HIRSHFIELD SAYING YES TO LIVING by DAVID IGNATOW THE WORLD IS SO DIFFICULT TO GIVE UP by DAVID IGNATOW THE BALLAD OF WILLIAM SYCAMORE (1790-1880) by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET |
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