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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LORDS OF PAIN by GEORGE STERLING

First Line: THE LORDS OF PAIN ARE MIGHTIER BY NIGHT
Last Line: WHOM MUSIC LEADS TO SLEEP, AND SLEEP TO DEATH.
Subject(s): DEATH; LIFE; PAIN; SLEEP; DEAD, THE; SUFFERING; MISERY;
The Lords of Pain are mightier by night:
Swiftly, as darkness closed the dreary day,
They marshalled whose inimical array
I saw not, conscious only of their might,
As, thro' the hours' intolerable flight
And swoon recurrent of the spirit, they
Wrought grievously their will upon the clay,
Till respite of the dawn's delaying light.

Not thus, O Life! would I depart from thee --
Relinquishing at Agony's command
The lights and shadows of thine empery;
But so put by the guerdon of the breath
As one grown weary in a twilight land,
Whom Music leads to Sleep, and Sleep to Death.



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