Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CONFESSIO AMANTIS, by WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (1817-1901) Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: I still can suffer pain Alternate Author Name(s): Channing Ii, William Ellery Subject(s): Transcendentalism | ||||||||
I STILL can suffer pain; I strive and hope in vain; My wounds may not all heal, Nor time their depth reveal. So dreamed I, of a summer day, As in the oak's cool shade I lay, And thought that shining, lightsome river Went rippling, rippling on forever: - That I should bend with pain, Should sing and love in vain; That I should fret and pine, And hopeless thought define. I want a true and simple heart, That asks no pleasure in a part, But seeks the whole; and finds the soul, A heart at rest, in sure control. I shall accept all I may have, Or fine or foul, or rich or brave; Accept that measure in life's cup, And touch the rim and raise it up. Some drop of Time's strange glass it holds, So much endurance it enfolds; Or base and small, or broadly meant, I cannot spill God's element. Dion or C…sar drained no more, Not Solon, nor a Plato's lore; So much had they the power to do, So much hadst thou, and equals too. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHY MIRA CAN'T GO BACK TO HER OLD HOUSE by MIRABAI MY LIFE by HENRY DAVID THOREAU RUMORS FROM AN AEOLIAN HARP by HENRY DAVID THOREAU ODE TO A BUTTERFLY by THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON THE HEART'S CURE by ELLEN STURGIS HOOPER THE HOUSE OF REST by JULIA WARD HOWE SONNET: 8. TO M. W., ON HER BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL HYMN OF THE EARTH by WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (1817-1901) |
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