Fear

Gamaliel Bradford 1863 (Boston, Massachusetts) – 1932



When I was little,
My life was half fear.
My nerves were as brittle
As nature may bear.

Shapes monstrous would follow
My footsteps alone,
And night, huge and hollow,
Yawned cold as a stone.

At trifles I started,
For nothing I wept,
And terror departed
Not all when I slept.

Now I've grown older,
My nerves I restrain.
My pulses are colder,
And clearer my brain.

Yet still with a shudder
I drift through the dark
And fear holds the rudder,
A-guiding my bark.

The world's so enormous
In multiple whole,
What god can inform us
It cares for a soul?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
77

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAX BCBC DEDE FGFG FHFH IJIJ
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 529
Words 104
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Gamaliel Bradford

Gamaliel Bradford was an American biographer, critic, poet, and dramatist. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the sixth of seven men called Gamaliel Bradford in unbroken succession, of whom the first, Gamaliel Bradford, was a great-grandson of Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. His grandfather, Dr. Gamaliel Bradford of Boston, was a noted abolitionist. more…

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