A Last Word
A Last Word
Original Text
Ernest Dowson, Decorations: in Verse and Prose (London: Leonard Smithers, 1899): 39. del D696 D43 1899 Fisher Rare Book Library
1Let us go hence: the night is now at hand;
2 The day is overworn, the birds all flown;
3 And we have reaped the crops the gods have sown;
4Despair and death; deep darkness o'er the land,
5Broods like an owl; we cannot understand
6 Laughter or tears, for we have only known
7 Surpassing vanity: vain things alone
8Have driven our perverse and aimless band.
9Let us go hence, somewhither strange and cold,
10 To Hollow Lands where just men and unjust
11Find end of labour, where's rest for the old,
12 Freedom to all from love and fear and lust.
13Twine our torn hands! O pray the earth enfold
14 Our life-sick hearts and turn them into dust.
Publication Start Year
1899
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1996-2000.
Rhyme
Form