Life by Henrietta Cordelia Ray

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 10, 2015   Life   Henrietta Cordelia Ray

Life! Ay, what is it? E’en a moment spun     From cycles of eternity. And yet,     What wrestling ’mid the fever and the fret Of tangled purposes and hopes undone! What affluence of love! What vict’ries won     In agonies of silence, ere trust met     A manifold fulfillment, and the wet, Beseeching eyes saw splendors past the sun! What struggle in the web of circumstance,     And yearning in the wingèd music! All,         One restless strife from fetters to be free; Till, gathered to eternity’s expanse,     Is that brief moment at the Father’s call.         Life! Ay, at best, ’tis but a mystery!            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “Life” was published in Ray’s book Sonnets (J. J. Little & Co., 1893).   Henrietta Cordelia Ray was born in New York City in 1849. She published a collection of sonnets in 1893 and another collection of poetry in 1910. In 1876 Ray’s poem “Lincoln” was read at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C. Ray died in 1917. Poetry by Ray   Sonnets (Nabu Press, 2010) "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman "Live Blindly and Upon the Hour" by Trumbull Stickney "Days" by Ralph Waldo Emerson Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038