RPO -- Edmund Vance Cooke : Poetry

Edmund Vance Cooke (1866-1932)

Poetry

1To deftly do what many dimly think;

2 To fund a feeling for the world to borrow;

3To turn a tear to printer's ink;

4 To make a sonnet of a sorrow.

Notes

1] This the first quatrain in "A Triplet of Quatrains." The second is "Ego-theism":

This trouble seems to be
Chief in theology:
Each thinks the hymn should be, --
Nearer, my God, to Thee.

and the third "The Mystery of Evil":

The rake upon a wanton wastes the wiles
Which dazzle innocence.
The nettle guards itself; the lily smiles
Unheedful of defence.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: A Patch of Pansies (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1894): 13. Microtext Reading Room CIHM no. 29307. Robarts Library
First publication date: 1894
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/20

Rhyme: abab

Other poems by Edmund Vance Cooke