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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
INTERDEPENDENCE, by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL Poet's Biography First Line: Many men no doubt must die below-decks Last Line: One life's narrow flame or thin-toned lyre. Subject(s): Cooperation | |||
MANY men no doubt must die below-decks Where the heavy oars of the ship are plying; Others dwell above beside the tiller Know the flight of birds and the lore of star-lands. Many with weighted limbs must lie forever At the roots of the labyrinthine life-tree; Others have their place appointed With the sibyls, the queens of vision, Where they bide as in seats accustomed, Head untroubled and hand unburdened. Yet from yonder lives a shadow falleth On the happier lives of the others, And the light unto the heavy As to air and earth are fettered: From the weariness of forgotten peoples Vainly would I liberate mine eyelids, Or would keep my startled soul at distance From the silent fall of far-off planets. Many fates with mine are interwoven, Subtly mingled flow the threads of being, And my share in it is more than merely One life's narrow flame or thin-toned lyre. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE INTERNATIONALISTS by PHILIP M. HARDING A VENETIAN NIGHT by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL BALLAD OF THE OUTER LIFE by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL BALLAD OF THE OUTER LIFE by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL DEATH AND THE FOOL by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL ON MUTABILITY by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL THE DEATH OF TITIAN by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL THE MARRIAGE OF SOBEIDE by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL THE TWO by HUGO VON HOFMANNSTHAL |
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