I LAY full length near lonely trees Heart-full of sighing silences; So far as eyes could see all round There was no life, no stir, no sound. I thought no more down in the grass Of all that must be or that was; My weary brain forgot to ache, My heart was still and did not break. So close I lay to earth's large breast I could have dreamed myself at rest; Only that then the grass must be Above instead of under me. Wherefore, I thought, should I regain My anxious life that is so vain? Here will I lie, forgetting strife, Till death shall end this death-in-life. Ah, no: because, O coward will, Thy destined work thou must fulfil, Because no soul, be it great or small, Can rise alone or lonely fall. Therefore the old war must not cease, The hard old inner war of peace, With heart and body and mind and soul Each striving for a different goal. Therefore I will arise and bear The burden all men everywhere Have borne and must bear, and bear yet, Till the end come when we forget. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ECHO by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE SWING by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON STELLA'S BIRTHDAY, 1726-7 by JONATHAN SWIFT AH, HAD I SEEN THEE SOONER! by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS PANORAMA by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 34. REMINDING HER OF A PROMISE (2) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |