1. O GRIEF, how divers are thy shapes wherein men languish! The face sometime with tears thou fill'st, Sometime the heart thou kill'st With unseen anguish. Sometime thou smilest to view how Fate Plays with our human state: So far from surety here Are all our earthly joys, That what our strong hope builds, when least we fear, A stronger power destroys. 2. O Fate, why shouldst thou take from Kings their joy and treasure? Their image if men should deface 'Twere death, which thou dost race Even at thy pleasure. Wisdom of holy kings yet knows Both what it hath, and owes. Heaven's hostage, which you bred And nursed with such choice care, Is ravished now, great King, and from us fled When we were least aware. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO W.P.: 3 by GEORGE SANTAYANA BUCOLIC COMEDY: FOX TROT by EDITH SITWELL APPROACH OF WINTER by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS BALLAD by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ANNABEL LEE by EDGAR ALLAN POE THE CLOAK by ANNA LOUISE BARNEY |