[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Sonnet (To-Day Was But A Dead Day In My Hands)

John Charles McNeill

To-day was but a dead day in my hands.
 Hour by hour did nothing more than pass,
 Mere idle winds above the faded grass.
And I, as though a captive held in bands,
Who, seeing a pageant, wonders much, but stands
 Apart, saw the sun blaze his course with brass
 And sink into his fabled sea of glass
With glory of farewell to many lands.

Thou knowest, thou who talliest life by days,
 That I have suffered more than pain of toil,
 Ah, more than they whose wounds are soothed with oil,
And they who see new light on beaten ways!
The prisoner I, who grasps his iron bars
And stares out into depth on depth of stars!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Songs, Merry and Sad | Stone & Barringer Co., 1906
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.