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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AT THE END by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON

Poet Analysis

First Line: TIME WAS WHEN LOVE'S DEAR WAYS I USED TO KNOW
Last Line: AND LEFT ME FOR COMPANION MY DESPAIR.
Subject(s): LOVE - LOSS OF;

TIME was when Love's dear ways I used to know --
That time's at end, and Love has passed me by:
Be merciful, dear God, and let me die --
How can I lift my head from this last blow?

I cannot bear this life whence Faith has fled --
This jostling world in which I walk alone --
Where through long, lonesome nights old memories moan,
With human voices, that the dead is dead.

I cannot bear to meet the day's cold eyes --
The lonesome nights are bitter with my tears --
Shuddering I face the empty hideous years,
Sure that no trumpet's call will bid my dead arise.

Since Love's at end, be merciful, oh God!. . . .
I ask no new-born hope, but only this, --
That I may die as died that vanished bliss,
And hide my fruitless pain 'neath some green sod.

Yet there -- if the strong soul in me live on --
How deep soe'er the grave, what hope of rest?
Still shall I be discrowned and dispossest,
And find new tortures with new life begun.

The Heavens are deaf! No answer comes to prayer --
I face the cold scorn of the risen day --
Since Love that was my life has turned away,
And left me for companion my Despair.



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