1. O GRIEF, how divers are thy shapes wherein men languish! The face sometime with tears thou fill'st, Sometime the heart thou kill'st With unseen anguish. Sometime thou smilest to view how Fate Plays with our human state: So far from surety here Are all our earthly joys, That what our strong hope builds, when least we fear, A stronger power destroys. 2. O Fate, why shouldst thou take from Kings their joy and treasure? Their image if men should deface 'Twere death, which thou dost race Even at thy pleasure. Wisdom of holy kings yet knows Both what it hath, and owes. Heaven's hostage, which you bred And nursed with such choice care, Is ravished now, great King, and from us fled When we were least aware. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE STORM by KATHERINE MANSFIELD BLACK EAGLE RETURNS TO ST. JOE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALBERT SCHIRDING by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JOSEPH DIXON by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TO WHISTLER, AMERICAN; ON LOAN EXHIBIT OF PAINTINGS AT TATE GALLERY by EZRA POUND LINES ON LEAVING THE BEDFORD STR. SCHOOL HOUSE by GEORGE SANTAYANA |