Experience
Experience
Original Text
May-day and Other Pieces (London: G. Routledge, 1867)
PS 1624 .M3 Robarts Library
1The lords of life, the lords of life,---
2I saw them pass,
3In their own guise,
4Like and unlike,
5Portly and grim, --
6Use and Surprise,
7Surface and Dream,
8Succession swift and spectral Wrong,
9Temperament without a tongue,
10And the inventor of the game
11Omnipresent without name; --
12Some to see, some to be guessed,
13They marched from east to west:
14Little man, least of all,
15Among the legs of his guardians tall,
16Walked about with puzzled look.
17Him by the hand dear Nature took,
18Dearest Nature, strong and kind,
19Whispered, "Darling, never mind!
20To-morrow they will wear another face,
21The founder thou; these are thy race!"
Publication Start Year
1844
Publication Notes
Epigraph for an essay with the same title in Essays: Second Series (1844).
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme