Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HERE IS MUSIC: CHANT ROYAL; FOR NORMAN WHATLEY, by AUSTIN PHILIPS First Line: Frustrate and failure, fortune's footstool, fate's Last Line: Shall not look down on one who wholly lived in vain. Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Youth | ||||||||
FRUSTRATE and failure, Fortune's footstool, Fate's Fond, foolish whipping-boy, poor plaything, bound By cloying Civil Service shackledom, the State's Most minor minion, glued of foot to ground From which I fain would soar with ruffled wings That dire disuse and secret sorrowings And tears of impotence had tumbledtrick'd, trapped, torn By unused strengths, goaded by gifts inborn But crushed since childhood, beaten, baulked again And yet againI felt, adrift, forlorn, That I had wholly lived, must live, my life in vain. Then (as to some sad soul whom Hell's black gates Yawn wide to welcome, yet who lifts suppliant hand And seeming-foolish pray'r to-wards Heaven, sates His eyes with hopeless hopings) passionate, fond, Fierce orison found answer. Shewhose sufferings And faults and fires were great as mine, whom stings And home-forged stabs, black basenesses, quick thorn Of gross ingratitudes had waked to scorn, Love, hatred, nobleness, divine disdain, Hunger to help self-helperslighted, made reborn Life I had held, so long, were wholly lived in vain. Hers was that act which Time himself abates No whit within my memory. Edith Bland, (The world's E. Nesbit!) whose work decorates A name once known our whole wide Empire round, Had eyes, heart, hands to help, had monishings, Had strength to strengthen, mend my waverings, Taught me that what had seemed defeat was dawn Of vict'ry, night blest prelude to bright morn, Bid me take horse once more, go tilt amain With sharpen'd spear-point, trumpet-sound and horn, Lest wholly, at long last, I live my life in vain. I built on bye-gone griefs, old loves, new hates, Past hopes and present passions fiercely fanned To fire and frenzy by sharp need. Fresh straits I forced apace, found openings; quick demand Came for my stories; secret, intimate things Wrenched and set forth from ancient heart-burnings, Ambitions, joys, rebuffs, (what time, as pawn To envious Fate, I walked aloof and shorn Of ached-for friendships), brought, in lieu of pain, Words gracious-grateful such as found me drawn To deem I had not wholly lived my life in vain. Nay, more. Those seeming-lost, of distant dates, Some severed by harsh Circumstance; some bann'd By smug convention which Suburbia rates So richly; some exiled in alien land; Some lied away, long since, by whisperings Of tenth-rate traitors skilled in murderings, Blew back and blurted praise spontaneous, worn, False, genuine; while men whose deeds adorn Our days and era showed themselves full fain Of friendship ... showed me, too, I need not mourn Lest I had wholly lived, must live, my life in vain. Envoi But best and happiest gift changed Fortune brings Is Knowledge that my words once touched the strings Of a boy's heart, thus helped him who, in turn, Gave Clifton guidance rather glad than stern. ... Since such be so, his generous words make plain Non omnis moriar. My life's last bourne Shall not look down on one who wholly lived in vain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BETWEEN THE WARS by ROBERT HASS THE GOLDEN SHOVEL by TERRANCE HAYES ALONG WITH YOUTH by ERNEST HEMINGWAY THE BLACK RIVIERA by MARK JARMAN A BALLADE OF GREEN FIELDS; FOR F.W.M. by AUSTIN PHILIPS |
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