Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SCHERZO, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: When the down is on the chin Last Line: "time to say good-bye; it snows." Subject(s): Old Age | ||||||||
WHEN the down is on the chin And the gold-gleam in the hair, When the birds their sweethearts win And champagne is in the air, Love is here, and Love is there, Love is welcome everywhere. Summer's cheek too soon turns thin, Days grow briefer, sunshine rare; Autumn from his cannekin Blows the froth to chase Despair: Love is met with frosty stare, Cannot house 'neath branches bare. When new life is in the leaf And new red is in the rose, Though Love's Maytime be as brief As a dragon-fly's repose, Never moments come like those, Be they Heaven or Hell: who knows? All too soon comes Winter's grief, Spendthrift Love's false friends turn foes; Softly comes Old Age, the thief, Steals the rapture, leaves the throes: Love his mantle round him throws, "Time to say Good-bye; it snows." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT EIGHTY I CHANGE MY VIEW by DAVID IGNATOW FAWN'S FOSTER-MOTHER by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE DEER LAY DOWN THEIR BONES by ROBINSON JEFFERS OLD BLACK MEN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A WINTER ODE TO THE OLD MEN OF LUMMUS PARK, / MIAMI, FLORIDA by DONALD JUSTICE AFTER A LINE BY JOHN PEALE BISHOP by DONALD JUSTICE TO HER BODY, AGAINST TIME by ROBERT KELLY SONG FROM A COUNTRY FAIR by LEONIE ADAMS AFTER THE BURIAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |
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