New And Old

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



I and new love, in all its living bloom,
 Sat vis-à-vis, while tender twilight hours
 Went softly by us, treading as on flowers.
Then suddenly I saw within the room
The old love, long since lying in its tomb.
 It dropped the cerecloth from its fleshless face
 And smiled on me, with a remembered grace
That, like the noontide, lit the gloaming gloom.

Upon its shroud there hung the grave’s green mould,
 About it hung the odour of the dead;
 Yet from its cavernous eyes such light was shed
That all my life seemed gilded, as with gold;
 Unto the trembling new love “Go, ” I said,
“I do not need thee, for I have the old.”

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
116

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAACCA DEEDED
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 632
Words 120
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

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    "New And Old" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/10724/new-and-old>.

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