The Mockery
Harriet Monroe 1860 (Chicago) – 1936 (Arequipa)
Sometimes I laugh—what else can a man do
Who does not know ? This little ego here
Braving the void, this fleck upon the blue,
This filmy wing sounding the starry sphere—
What bold abysmal incongruity,
What joke of the gods to make a mock of me !
I hear you sing, and wonder how you dare.
Too fine for song they are—the tint of the rose,
The touch of a child, love's beauty and despair,
All the sad furtive exquisiteness that blows,
Like scent of gardens I may never see,
Across my sense to make a mock of me.
That I, this atom infinitesimal,
This chance-blown seed of flesh and fire, that I
Should front the dread immensity, the all,
Shocking the silence with my futile cry—
What dark inscrutable absurdity,
What joke of the gods to make a mock of me!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 43 sec read
- 55 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | axaxbB cdcdbb xexebB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 767 |
Words | 143 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
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"The Mockery" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/16925/the-mockery>.
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