Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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First Line: Alack, alack! My days are dreary
Last Line: Ah ne'er, ah ne'er! Alack, alack!
Alternate Author Name(s): Launay, Vicomte Charles De; Gay, Delphine; Girardin Emile De


ALACK, alack! my days are dreary,
Fast fleeting, wasted, void, and vain.
Alack, alack! my heart is weary
Of straying o'er and o'er again.

Still the old follies repossess,
Retrodden love's delusive track.
Still the same dregs of bitterness,
The same, the same--Alack, alack!

Alack, alack! how oft one swears
Henceforth unmoved and proud to stay.
Alack, alack! come smiles or tears,
To-morrow re-enacts to-day.
Where erst we fell we fall again;
Poor fools we were, and shall be so
Till both feet in the grave be lain,
Alack, alack! below, below.

Alack, alack! when I began
To mock in merry guise I thought,
Alack, alack! this world of man
So cruel in its very sport.
But no! a sudden agony
Has stopt my song, my tears brought back;
From your own self you ne'er can fly.
Ah ne'er, ah ne'er! alack, alack!





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