Classic and Contemporary Poetry
IDLE FEARS, by ALICE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: In my lost childhood old folks said to me Last Line: The image of her prime may not displace. Subject(s): Fear; Childhood Memories | ||||||||
IN my lost childhood old folks said to me, "Now is the time and season of your bliss; All joy is in the hope of joy to be, Not in possession; and in after years You will look back with longing sighs and tears To the young days when you from care were free." It was not true; they nurtured idle fears; I never saw so good a day as this! And youth and I have parted: long ago I looked into my glass, and saw one day A little silver line that told me so: At first I shut my eyes and cried, and then I hid it under girlish flowers, but when Persuasion would not make my mate to stay, I bowed my faded head, and said, "Amen!" And all my peace is since she went away. My window opens toward the autumn woods; I see the ghosts of thistles walk the air O'er the long, level stubble-land that broods; Beneath the herbless rocks that jutting lie, Summer has gathered her white family Of shrinking daisies; all the hills are bare, And in the meadows not a limb of buds Through the brown bushes showeth anywhere. Dear, beauteous season, we must say good-bye, And can afford to, we have been so blest, And farewells suit the time; the year doth lie With cloudy skirts composed, and pallid face Hid under yellow leaves, with touching grace, So that her bright-haired sweetheart of the sky The image of her prime may not displace. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE IMAGINED COPPERHEAD by ANDREW HUDGINS THINKING OF THE LOST WORLD by RANDALL JARRELL HELP ME TO SALT, HELP ME TO SORROW by JUDY JORDAN THE POET AT SEVEN by DONALD JUSTICE THE DOGWOOD THE ANSWER by ROBERT KELLY A BOY GOES INTO THE WORLD by JANE KENYON DRAWING FROM THE PAST by JANE KENYON THE POOL by ALEXANDER ANDERSON A SPINSTER'S STINT by ALICE CARY |
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