Something Left Undone
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807 (Portland) – 1882 (Cambridge)
Labor with what zeal we will,
Something still remains undone,
Something uncompleted still
Waits the rising of the sun.
By the bedside, on the stair,
At the threshhold, near the gates,
With its menace or its prayer,
Like a medicant it waits;
Waits, and will not go away;
Waits, and will not be gainsaid;
By the cares of yesterday
Each to-day is heavier made;
Till at length the burden seems
Greater than our strength can bear,
Heavy as the weight of dreams
Pressing on us everywhere.
And we stand from day to day,
Like the dwarfs of times gone by,
Who, as Northern legends say,
On their shoulders held the sky.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 146 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GCGC EHEH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 598 |
Words | 113 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Something Left Undone" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/18723/something-left-undone>.
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