|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A LOST LETTER, by CLEMENT WILLIAM SCOTT Poet's Biography First Line: Just read this letter, old friend of mine Last Line: "I had lived far better and died in peace!" Subject(s): Death; Grief; Love; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness | |||
JUST read this letter, old friend of mine; I picked it up upon Margate Pier, In a whirling world of women and wine; 'T was blotted and blurred with a fallen tear. Come, think one minute of years ago, When the chance was with us -- a soul to save, The whim was in us to love, you know, But the woman, she fell to a fool or knave. "'T is easy to picture the tortured heart That faced despair and a grief like this." She saw her lover unloved depart And turn again to a hateful kiss. "Had I been loved by a man like you" -- O weary woman! O fearful fate! 'T is a passionate cry; but it strikes me through, Who sigh too soon, but who love too late. "Who was the woman?" I seem to trace Her footprints here in Vanity Fair: A mother, perchance, with an earnest face; A wife with a glory of Titian hair; A soul perplexed, and a faith at stake, A life nigh lost -- there are thousands such Who face the world, when their heart-strings break For the one kind word and the tender touch! Who was the man? What matter at all? 'T is man who ruins and sows the tears; 'T is men who tempt, but women who fall, And are never absolved in the deathless years. The least we can do, O brothers, is this; Whilst love is with us, and life seems down, We can soothe the sad with a gentle kiss, And dry the eyes that our sins can drown! Go back, lost letter of wild despair, I will cast you forth on the infinite sea; But the day glides on, and the Margate air Is piercing sweet to the world and me. But still I can never forget -- can you? -- That cry that nothing can soothe or cease; "Had I been loved by a man like you, I had lived far better and died in peace!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONOMA FIRE by JANE HIRSHFIELD AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARDS by JOHN HOLLANDER WHAT GREAT GRIEF HAS MADE THE EMPRESS MUTE by JUNE JORDAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 19 by JAMES JOYCE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS A CONTRADICTION by CLEMENT WILLIAM SCOTT |
|