I did not doom her: for, if clear am I From rhyme to rhyme, this is a story of How Time and Circumstance gave birth to love, How Time and Circumstance did crucify, With manhood's reason standing helpless by, Almost to madness. Time and Circumstance Unto the oak-trees of that haunted manse Shackled our feet. I did not doom her. Why? -- "And now the Old Man is about to die," Neighbors had told me. And new months of life Made her not less the daughter in the wife The more his own life lacked for hand and eye: -- A grey head nodding in a pillowed chair Kept me the husband, her the daughter, there. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PHONECALL FROM FRANK O'HARA by ANNE WALDMAN GREENNESS by ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE THE CUMBERLAND by HERMAN MELVILLE THE FLIGHT OF LOVE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY SONNET PREFIXED TO 'NENNIO, OR A TREATISE OF NOBILITY' by EDMUND SPENSER |