Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A MONODY, by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Hour after hour Last Line: Eternity! Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, Isaac Subject(s): Future Life; Retribution; Eternity; After Life | ||||||||
I. HOUR after hour, Day after day, Some gentle flower Or leaf gives way Within the bower Of human hearts; -- Tear after tear In anguish starts, For, green or sere, Some loved leaf parts From the arbere Of human hearts; The keen winds blow; Rain, hail and snow Fall everywhere! And one by one, As life's sands run, These loved things fare Till plundered hearts at last are won, To woo despair. II. Why linger on, Fate's mockery here, When each is gone, Heart-loved, heart-dear? Stone spells to stone Its weary tale, How graves were filled, How cheeks waxed pale, How hearts were chilled With biting gale, And life's strings thrilled With sorrow's wail. Flower follows flower In the heart's bower, To fleet away; While leaf on leaf, Sharp grief on grief, -- Night chasing day, Tell as they fall, all joy is brief, Life but decay. III. The sea-weed thrown By wave or wind, On strand unknown, Lone grave to find; Methinks may own, Of kindred more Than I dare claim On life's bleak shore. Name follows name For evermore, As swift waves shame Slow waves before; -- For keen winds blow; Rain, hail, and snow Fall everywhere, Till life's sad tree, In mockery, Skeletoned bare Of every leaf, is left to be Mate of despair. IV. The world is wide, Is rich and fair, Its things of pride Flaunt everywhere; But can it hide Its hollowness, One mighty shell Of bitterness, One grand farewell To happiness, One solemn knell To love's caress, It seems to me. The shipless sea Hath bravery more Than this waste scene, Where what hath been Beloved of yore, In the heart's bower so fresh and green, Fades evermore! V. From all its kind, This wasted heart -- This moody mind Now drifts apart; It longs to find The tideless shore, Where rests the wreck Of Heretofore, -- The glorious wreck Of mental ore; The great heartbreak Of loves no more. I drift alone, For all are gone Dearest to me; And hail the wave That to the grave On hurrieth me: Welcome, thrice welcome, then, thy wave, Eternity! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IKON: THE HARROWING OF HELL by DENISE LEVERTOV LEEK STREET by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR UNABLE TO FIND by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR THE AFTERLIFE: LETTER TO STEPHEN DOBYNS 3 by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE AFTERLIFE: LETTER TO STEPHEN DOBYNS: 1 by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE AFTERLIFE: LETTER TO STEPHEN DOBYNS: 2 by HAYDEN CARRUTH WRITING IN THE AFTERLIFE by BILLY COLLINS JEANIE MORRISON by WILLIAM MOTHERWELL |
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