Yesterday And To-Morrow
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
YESTERDAY I held your hand,
Reverently I pressed it,
And its gentle yieldingness
From my soul I blessed it.
But to-day I sit alone,
Sad and sore repining;
Must our gold forever know
Flames for the refining?
Yesterday I walked with you,
Could a day be sweeter?
Life was all a lyric song
Set to tricksy meter.
Ah, to-day is like a dirge,—
Place my arms around you,
Let me feel the same dear joy
As when first I found you.
Let me once retrace my steps,
From these roads unpleasant,
Let my heart and mind and soul
All ignore the present.
Yesterday the iron seared
And to-day means sorrow.
Pause, my soul, arise, arise,
Look where gleams the morrow.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 12, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 91 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCBDEFEGHEHIGJGCKLKMFCF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 631 |
Words | 123 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 24 |
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"Yesterday And To-Morrow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/29016/yesterday-and-to-morrow>.
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