English Poetry. Amy Lowell. Before Dawn. Эми Лоуэлл.

Amy Lowell (Эми Лоуэлл)

Before Dawn

Life!  Austere arbiter of each man’s fate,
By whom he learns that Nature’s steadfast laws
Are as decrees immutable; O pause
Your even forward march!  Not yet too late
Teach me the needed lesson, when to wait
Inactive as a ship when no wind draws
To stretch the loosened cordage.  One implores
Thy clemency, whose wilfulness innate
Has gone uncurbed and roughshod while the years
Have lengthened into decades; now distressed
He knows no rule by which to move or stay,
And teased with restlessness and desperate fears
He dares not watch in silence thy wise way
Bringing about results none could have guessed.

Amy Lowell’s other poems:

1. The Fool Errant
2. The Cyclists
3. The Paper Windmill
4. Francis II, King of Naples
5. To Elizabeth Ward Perkins

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

Algernon Swinburne (Алджернон Суинбёрн) Before Dawn (“SWEET LIFE, if life were stronger”)

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