Classic and Contemporary Poetry
STANZAS WRITTEN WRITTEN ON THE FIRST OF JANUARY, 1794, by ROBERT SOUTHEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Come melancholy moralizer, come Last Line: The grave the inn of rest. Subject(s): Death; Depression, Mental; Happiness; Life; Morality; Mortality; Rest; Dead, The; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Joy; Delight; Ethics | ||||||||
COME melancholy moralizer, come! Gather with me the dark and wintry wreath; With me engarland now The sepulchre of Time! Come, moralizer, to the funeral song! I pour the dirge of the departed days; For well the funeral song Befits this solemn hour. But hark! even now the merry bells ring round With clamorous joy to welcome in this day, This consecrated day, To mirth and indolence. Mortal! whilst fortune with benignant hand Fills to the brim thy cup of happiness, Whilst her unclouded sun Illumes thy summer day, Canst thou rejoice,rejoice that time flies fast? That night shall shadow soon thy summer sun? That swift the stream of years Rolls to eternity? If thou hast wealth to gratify each wish, If power be thine, remember what thou art! Remember thou art man, And death thine heritage! Hast thou known love! doth beauty's better sun Cheer thy fond heart with no capricious smile, Her eye all eloquence, All harmony her voice? Oh state of happiness!hark how the gale Moans deep and hollow o'er the leafless grove! Winter is dark and cold; Where now the charms of spring! Sayest thou that fancy paints the future scene In hues too sombrous? that the dark-stoled maid With stern and frowning front Appals the shuddering soul? And wouldst thou bid me court her fairy form When, as she sports her in some happier mood, Her many-coloured robes Dance varying to the sun? Ah! vainly does the pilgrim, whose long road Leads o'er the barren mountain's storm-vext height, With anxious gaze survey The quiet vale, far off. Oh there are those who love the pensive song, To whom all sounds of mirth are dissonant! They at this solemn hour Will love to contemplate! For hopeless sorrow hails the lapse of time, Rejoicing when the fading orb of day Is sunk again in night, That one day more is gone. And he who bears affliction's heavy load With patient piety, well pleased he knows The world a pilgrimage, The grave the inn of rest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A POEM ON MORAL LEADERSHIP AS A POLITICAL DILEMMA by JUNE JORDAN SONG OF SOCIAL DESPAIR by MARVIN BELL THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S ANNUAL by NORMAN DUBIE TWO HORSES AND A DOG by JAMES GALVIN FIN-DE-SIECLE BLUES by CAROLYN KIZER HYBRIDS OF WAR: A MORALITY POEM: 4. THE MORAL by KAREN SWENSON URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: THIS STORY MORALIZED by WILLIAM BASSE BISHOP BRUNO by ROBERT SOUTHEY |
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