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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE OLD WORLDLING, by EDWARD NOYES POMEROY
First Line: He shambles by each sunny afternoon
Last Line: Bitter forever!
Subject(s): Old Age; Solitude; Loneliness
First Line: He shambles by each sunny afternoon
Last Line: Bitter forever!
Subject(s): Old Age; Solitude; Loneliness
He shambles by each sunny afternoon;
His portly form is shrunken as a spectre;
His face is vacant as the morning moon;
Quaffed is his nectar.
Out of his eyes the dancing light is gone;
Out of his blood the wanton warmth that thrilled it;
Out of his air the charm that conquests won
When fancy willed it.
Proud was his port and tasty his array;
His days and nights o'erflowed with song and laughter;
He never dreamed that these would pass away
And this come after.
He courted pleasure and secured it still;
He asked for friends, and loves, and these were given;
He craved all worldly good and had his fill;
He sought not Heaven.
His friends have vanished never to return;
His pleasures, treasures, all his heart's desire;
His passions only in their embers burn;
Mute is his lyre.
For him the eventime has brought no light;
Its sighing breezes pity as they kiss him;
The dark will bear him to the wastes of night;
Earth will not miss him.
Alas, the life that has no upward look,
No sacrifice of self, no high endeavor;
Its taste becoming, like the seer's book,
Bitter forever!
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SILENCE LIKE COOL SAND by PAT MORA
THE HONEY BEAR by EILEEN MYLES
THE OLD CHURCH ON THE HILL by EDWARD NOYES POMEROY