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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
INFELIX, by ADAH ISAACS MENKEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Where is the promise of my years Last Line: An exile lingering here. Alternate Author Name(s): Theodore, Philomene Croi; Mccord, Ada Subject(s): Evil; Life | |||
Where is the promise of my years; Once written on my brow? Ere errors, agonies and fears Brought with them all that speaks in tears, Ere I had sunk beneath my peers; Where sleeps that promise now? Naught lingers to redeem those hours, Still, still to memory sweet! The flowers that bloomed in sunny bowers Are withered all; and Evil towers Supreme above her sister powers Of Sorrow and Deceit. I look along the columned years, And see Life's riven fane, Just where it fell, amid the jeers Of scornful lips, whose mocking sneers, For ever hiss within mine ears To break the sleep of pain. I can but own my life is vain A desert void of peace; I missed the goal I sought to gain, I missed the measure of the strain That lulls Fame's fever in the brain, And bids Earth's tumult cease. Myself! alas for theme so poor A theme but rich in Fear; I stand a wreck on Error's shore, A spectre not within the door, A houseless shadow evermore, An exile lingering here. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRIVILEGE OF BEING by ROBERT HASS SEAWATER STIFFENS CLOTH by JANE HIRSHFIELD SAYING YES TO LIVING by DAVID IGNATOW THE WORLD IS SO DIFFICULT TO GIVE UP by DAVID IGNATOW |
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