Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Thomas Runciman

Life with the sun in it—
        Shaded by gloom!
    Life with the fun in it—
        Shadowed by Doom!

Life with its Love ever haunted by Hate!
Life’s laughing morrows frowned over by Fate!
Young Life’s wild gladness still waylaid by Age!
All its sweet badness still mocking the sage!
What can e’er measure the joy of its strife?

    What boundless leisure
    Count the heaped treasure
    Of woe, that’s the pleasure
    And beauty of Life?

Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems | Privately Printed, 1922

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.

« Previous