Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WHAT THE TRAMP SAID, by JAMES STEPHENS Poet's Biography First Line: Why should we live when living is a pain Last Line: Ten million miles away from this damned world! Subject(s): Grief; Wandering & Wanderers; Sorrow; Sadness | ||||||||
Why should we live when living is a pain? I have not seen a flower had any scent, Nor heard a bird sing once! The very rain Seems dirty! and the clouds, all soiled and rent, Toil sulkily across the black old sky; And all the weary stars go moping by; They care not whither -- sea, or mount, or plain, All's one -- and what one gets is never gain! The sun scowled yesterday a weary while, That used to beam. The moon last night was grim, With cynic gaze, and frosty sullen smile: And once I loved to gaze, while, from the rim Of some great mountain, she would look, and gild The rustling cornfield. Now she is filled With bitterness and rancour sour as bile, And blasts the world's surface every mile. There is no more sunlight! All the weary world Is steeped in shadow! And for evermore The clouds will swarm and press, till I am hurled Back to the heart of things! Oh it is sore And sad and sorry to be living! Let me die And rest -- while all eternity lolls by -- Where the fierce winds of God are closely furled Ten million miles away from this damned world! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS |
|