Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CURIOUS LIFE POEM, by MRS. H. A. DEMING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CURIOUS LIFE POEM, by             Poem Explanation        
First Line: Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour?
Last Line: 38. William shakespeare
Variant Title(s): Life (a Literary Curiosity)
Subject(s): Life; Writing & Writers


1. WHY all this toil for triumphs of an hour?
2. Life's a short summer, man a flower.
3. By turns we catch the vital breath and die --
4. The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh.
5. To be, is better far than not to be.
6. Though all man's life may seem a tragedy;
7. But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb,
8. The bottom is but shallow whence they come.
9. Your fate is but the common lot of all:
10. Unmingled joys here to no man befall,
11. Nature to each allots his proper sphere;
12. Fortune makes folly her peculiar care;
13. Custom does often reason overrule,
14. And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool.
15. Live well; how long or short, permit to Heaven;
16. They who forgive most, shall be most forgiven.
17. Sin may be clasped so close we cannot see its face --
18. Vile intercourse where virtue has no place.
19. Then keep each passion down, however dear;
20. Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.
21. Her sensual snares, let faithless pleasure lay,
22. With craft and skill, to ruin and betray;
23. Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise.
24. We masters grow of all that we despise.
25. Oh, then, renounce that impious self-esteem;
26. Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.
27. Think not ambition wise because 'tis brave,
28. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
29. What is ambition? -- 'tis a glorious cheat! --
30. Only destructive to the brave and great.
31. What's all the gaudy glitter of a crown?
32. The way to bliss lies not on beds of down.
33. How long we live, not years but actions tell;
34. That man lives twice who lives the first life well.
35. Make, then, while yet ye may, your God your friend,
36. Whom Christians worship yet not comprehend.
37. The trust that's given guard, and to yourself be just;
38. For, live we how we can, yet die we must.

1. Edward Young
2. Samuel Johnson
3. Alexander Pope
4. Matthew Prior
5. Samuel Sewall
6. Edmund Spencer
7. Samuel Daniel
8. Sir Walter Raleigh
9. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
10. Robert Southwell
11. William Congreve
12. Charles Churchill
13. John Wilmot
14. John Armstrong
15. John Milton
16. Bailey
17. French
18. Somerville
19. Francis Thompson
20. Lord Byron
21. Thomas Smollett
22. George Crabbe
23. Philip Massinger
24. Abraham Crowley
25. James Beattie
26. William Cowper
27. William Davenant
28. Thomas Gray
29. Nathaniel Parker Willis
30. Joseph Addison
31. John Dryden
32. Francis Quarles
33. Watkins
34. Robert Herrick
35. William Mason
36. Hill
37. Richard Dana
38. William Shakespeare




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