I said, This Misery Must End

Christopher John Brennan 1870 (Haymarket, New South Wales) – 1932 (Lewisham, New South Wales)



I SAID, This misery must end:  
Shall I, that am a man and know  
that sky and wind are yet my friend,  
sit huddled under any blow?  
so speaking left the dismal room          
and stept into the mother-night  
all fill’d with sacred quickening gloom  
where the few stars burn’d low and bright,  
and darkling on my darkling hill  
heard thro’ the beaches’ sullen boom          
heroic note of living will  
rung trumpet-clear against the fight;  
so stood and heard, and rais’d my eyes  
erect, that they might drink of space,  
and took the night upon my face,          
till time and trouble fell away  
and all my soul sprang up to feel  
as one among the stars that reel  
in rhyme on their rejoicing way,  
breaking the elder dark, nor stay          
but speed beyond each trammelling gyre,  
till time and sorrow fall away  
and night be wither’d up, and fire  
consume the sickness of desire.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

46 sec read
76

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDECEDFGGHIIHHJHJJ
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 899
Words 155
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 24

Christopher John Brennan

Christopher John Brennan was an Australian poet, scholar and literary critic. more…

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    "I said, This Misery Must End" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/6017/i-said,-this-misery-must-end>.

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