Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SHADRACH O'LEARY, by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON


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SHADRACH O'LEARY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O'leary was a poet - for a while
Last Line: A failure spared, a shadrach of the gleam.


O'LEARY was a poet--for a while:
He sang of many ladies frail and fair,
The rolling glory of their golden hair,
And emperors extinguished with a smile.
They foiled his years with many an ancient wile,
And if they limped, O'Leary didn't care:
He turned them loose and had them everywhere,
Undoing saints and senates with their guile.

But this was not the end. A year ago
I met him--and to meet was to admire:
Forgotten were the ladies and the lyre,
And the small, ink-fed Eros of his dream.
By questioning I found a man to know--
A failure spared, a Shadrach of the Gleam.





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