Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FIN DE SIECLE, by ANONYMOUS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FIN DE SIECLE, by                    
First Line: Life is a gift that most of us hold dear
Subject(s): Cynicism;dreams;life;love;oysters; Nightmares


LIFE is a gift that most of us hold dear:
I never asked the spiteful gods to grant it;
Held it a bore -- in short; and now it's here,
I do not want it.

Thrust into life, I eat, smoke, drink, and sleep,
My mind's a blank I seldom care to question;
The only faculty I active keep
Is my digestion.

Like oyster on his rock, I sit and jest
At others' dreams of love or fame or pelf,
Discovering but a languid interest
Even in myself.

An oyster: ah! beneath the quiet sea
To know no care, no change, no joy, no pain,
The warm salt water gurgling into me
And out again.

While some in life's old roadside inns at ease
Sit careless, all unthinking of the score
Mine host chalks up in swift unseen increase
Behind the door;

Bound like Ixion on life's torture-wheel,
I whirl inert in pitiless gyration,
Loathing it all; the one desire I feel,
Annihilation!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net