Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VALEDICTORY; THE SCHOLAR TO THE ASHES OF HIS LIBRARY, by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB First Line: Gone the books of many names Last Line: Be the man that they should make. Subject(s): Death; Fire; Librarians & Libraries; World War Ii; Dead, The; Library; Librarians; Second World War | ||||||||
Gone the books of many names, Eaten up by hostile flames; Loss of all his store at once Leaves him a senescent dunce. Tecum habita et noris What your freightage at three score is. Where is now a lifetime's reading? Is aught left for years succeeding? Just a few scraps often quoted, Or a fragment vaguely noted; All is ash and burnt-out embers But what one poor brain remembers. Yet he sees the friendly faces Row on row in their set places; Knows exactly what is in them, Could he wake up and re-win them. Nay; they're ghosts, and they are gone Into charred oblivion. Fortune of the war, old man; Play the Stoic if you can; In the breast the heart be hid Of the Second Aeneid, Known and conned too many years Not to transubstantiate tears. "Studies into manners pass" So the sage's saying was. Studies are for virtue's sake; Be the man that they should make. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PORT OF EMBARKATION by RANDALL JARRELL GREATER GRANDEUR by ROBINSON JEFFERS FAMILY GROUP by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE IN PICTURES by JAMES MCMICHAEL READING MY POEMS FROM WORLD WAR II by WILLIAM MEREDITH AMONG THE LAKES by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB AN EPITAPH (AFTER THE GREEK EPIGRAMS) by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB |
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