AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats, Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me, (For what is my life or any man's life but a conflict with foes, the old, the incessant war?) You degradations, you tussle with passions and appetites, You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds the sharpest of all!) You toil of painful and choked articulations, you meannesses, You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the shallowest of any;) You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smother'd ennuis! Ah think not you finally triumph, my real self has yet to come forth, It shall yet march forth o'ermastering, till all lies beneath me, It shall yet stand up the soldier of ultimate victory. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GHOSTS OF A LUNATIC ASYLUM by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET NEW YEAR'S EVE by DAVID IGNATOW REPULSE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ITALIAN PICTURES: JULY IN VALLOMBROSA by MINA LOY THE RAINY SEASON by CLARENCE MAJOR JOHN WILKES BOOTH AT THE FARM (JANUARY 12, 1848) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |