Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: PROGRESS, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: When liberty lives loud on every lip Last Line: Even to thyself? Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert Subject(s): France; Freedom; Travel; Liberty; Journeys; Trips | ||||||||
WHEN Liberty lives loud on every lip, But Freedom moans, Trampled by Nations whose faint footfalls slip Round bloody thrones; When, here and there, in dungeon and in thrall, Or exile pale, Like torches dying at a funeral, Brave natures fail; When Truth, the armed archangel, stretches wide God's tromp in vain, And the world, drowsing, turns upon its side To drowse again; O Man, whose course hath called itself sublime Since it began, What art thou in such dying age of time, As man to man? When Love's last wrong hath been forgotten coldly, As First Love's face: And, like a rat that comes to wanton boldly In some lone place, Once festal, -- in the realm of light and laughter Grim Doubt appears; Whilst weird suggestions from Death's vague Hereafter, O'er ruined years, Creep, dark and darker, with new dread to mutter Through Life's long shade, Yet make no more in the chill breast the flutter Which once they made: Whether it be, -- that all doth at the grave Round to its term, That nothing lives in that last darkness, save The little worm, Or whether the tired spirit prolong its course Through realms unseen, -- Secure, that unknown world cannot be worse Than this hath been; Then when through Thought's gold chain, so frail and slender, No link will meet; When all the broken harps of Language render No sound that's sweet; When, like torn books, sad days weigh down each other I' the dusty shelf; O Man, what art thou, O my friend, my brother, Even to thyself? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RICHARD, WHAT'S THAT NOISE? by RICHARD HOWARD LOOKING FOR THE GULF MOTEL by RICHARD BLANCO RIVERS INTO SEAS by LYNDA HULL DESTINATIONS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES TO H. B. (WITH A BOOK OF VERSE) by MAURICE BARING THE LAST WISH by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: AUX ITALIENS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: THE CHESSBOARD by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |
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