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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES by ELIZABETH LUMMIS FRIES ELLETT

Poet Analysis

First Line: LOOK NOT UPON THE PAST - THE MOURNFUL PAST
Last Line: FOR THEE THE SHAME AND SORROW OF THE PAST.
LOOK not upon the past -- the mournful past.
In its stern grasp the joys and hopes of youth --
The forms that smiled upon us, wreath'd with light
Then beaming from the morning sky of life --
Are held: -- the forms to which affection clung;
Towards which the lone and stricken spirit yearns;
And the grim gaoler will not let them go!
Far off and dimly seen, like buried wealth
In cold dark ocean caves -- the treasures lie,
While o'er them rolls th' impenetrable deep,
And its hoarse murmur wails the ever lost.
Look not upon the past -- the bitter past.
Its spectral pageants haunt thee! -- Darkly there
Gathers a throng, from whose pursuing gaze
Thou fain would'st turn away. The hours misspent --
The wasted energies -- the gifts abused --
The feelings wrong'd -- the blighted hopes -- stand there
The sins thou deemedst trivial, and the world
Deem'd virtues haply, tower to giant height,
And flout thee with their scorn. The hidden crimes
Cast off their mask, and fill thee with affright.
Time, that relentless creditor, there stands,
Presenting his account, and bidding thee
Tremble at his dread records, and prepare
The reckoning to abide.
Look not upon
The past -- the gloomy past. 'T is stoled in grief.
'T is the domain of evil -- dark and sad
To human eyes, -- the mournful prison-house
Of human woes and errors. There, too, broods
The cloud of wrath divine.
@3Thou may'st forget@1 --
Is the kind sentence Heaven writes out for man.
Forget thy years of folly -- years of crime.
Lo, the unstained future! 't is thine own,
With all its glorious aims, its boundless hopes,
And thou may'st claim this bright inheritance
Free from all hindrance -- so the eye of faith
Be fix'd on Him who was content to bear
For thee the shame and sorrow of the past.



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