The Better Day
Archibald Lampman 1861 (Upper Canada) – 1899 (Ottawa, Canada)
Harsh thoughts, blind angers, and fierce hands,
That keep this restless world at strife,
Mean passions that, like choking sands,
Perplex the stream of life,
Pride and hot envy and cold greed,
The cankers of the loftier will,
What if ye triumph, and yet bleed?
Ah, can ye not be still?
Oh, shall there be no space, no time,
No century of weal in store,
No freehold in a nobler clime,
Where men shall strive no more?
Where every motion of the heart
Shall serve the spirit's master-call,
Where self shall be the unseen part,
And human kindness all?
Or shall we but by fits and gleams
Sink satisfied, and cease to rave,
Find love but in the rest of dreams,
And peace but in the grave?
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 71 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 669 |
Words | 129 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Better Day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/3682/the-better-day>.
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