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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LAST MAN: LIFE'S UNCERTAINTY, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The king looks well, red in its proper place Last Line: B. Nought: let her hatch. Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Death; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Dead, The | |||
A. THE king looks well, red in its proper place The middle of the cheek, and his eye's round Black as a bit of night. B. Yet men die suddenly: One sits upon a strong and rocky life, Watching a street of many opulent years, And Hope's his mason. Well! to-day do this, And so to-morrow; twenty hollow years Are stuffed with action:lo! upon his head Drops a pin's point of time; tick! quoth the clock, And the grave snaps him. A. Such things may have been; The crevice 'twixt two after-dinner minutes, The crack between a pair of syllables, May sometimes be a grave as deep as 'tis From noon to midnight in the hoop of time. But for this man, his life wears ever steel From which disease drops blunted. If indeed Death lay in the market-place, or werebut hush! See you the tremble of that myrtle bough? Does no one listen? B. Nothing with a tongue: The grass is dumb since Midas, and no Æsop Translates the crow or hog. Within the myrtle Sits a hen-robin, trembling like a star, Over her brittle eggs. A. Is it no more? B. Nought: let her hatch. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND BALLAD OF HUMAN LIFE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: DIRGE FOR WOLFRAM by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: SAILORS' [OR MARINERS'] SONG by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |
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