Despondency.

    O, gloomy world that rolls in weary space,
        And moans wild music to the broken spheres,
        Whose rivers wander into seas of tears,
    Despair has bound thee in a close embrace;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

    Death grows beside existence, and with time
        Is comrade of its changes; cycles roll
        Their heavy circles through the human soul,
    And pour their dirges into mournful rhyme;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

    He gropes in shadows for a happy beam
        That shall delight his bosom; into mist
        Dissolves the substance that ambition kissed,
    While greatness grows the garland of a dream;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

    Endeavor struggles to an open grave;
        The past is lost in monumental dust,
        Where age on age in angry ire has thrust
    The wise, the strong, the mighty, and the brave;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

    The years are shades that totter from their tombs,
        The ages, ghosts that live in catacombs
        And lure the Present to their awful homes,
    Where ancient races wander in the glooms;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

    Oblivion welcomes men with gentle arms,
        And presses them like infants to her breast,
        Repeats to them her lullabies of rest,
    And guards them from all sorrows and alarms;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

    Then hasten, world, and let my battle cease;
        I care not where I stay nor when I go;
        For action gives unhappiness and woe,
    But Lethe brings forgetfulness and peace;
        A birth, a life, a death; man is no more!

Freeman Edwin Miller

Freeman Edwin Miller was an American poet, journalist, and teacher, best known for his work in Oklahoma. Born on November 9, 1864, in New Jersey, Miller moved to Oklahoma in 1894, where he became a prominent figure in the literary and educational communities. He is remembered for his contributions to early Oklahoma literature, as well as his work in promoting education and journalism in the region. He passed away on July 14, 1951.

Freeman Edwin Miller

When Fortunes Frown.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

Shadow And Shine.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

Truest Heroes Are Unknown.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

When We Shall Meet.

Freeman Edwin Miller, Simple Poetry

English

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O, Weak And Weary World!

        O weak and weary world
        Forever struggling on,
    When will thy toils in comfort be impearled,
        When will thy sorrows and thy cares be gone?
    When shall the races, all ambition dead,
        Forsake the stony slope and rocky steep,
    And in contentment sweetly wed
        The joys that never sleep?

        O, weak and weary world,
        Long hast thou toiled in vain;
    The smoky fumes of woe are darkly curled
        With endless troubles and enduring pain;
    When will thy bosom, faint and helpless grown,
        Rest sweetly in the balmy bowers of ease?
    Avoid the woes that constant groan
        And follow shapes that please?

        O, weak and weary world,
        Why search the hills and seas?
   ...

Freeman Edwin Miller

Discontent.

    The sun comes up in the east
        And the sun goes down in the west,
    And man to me is a heartless beast
        And the world has only a savage breast.

    How thoughts rush over my soul
        As the waves walk over the sea!
    Their forms flee soon and the sorrows roll
        In the deep distress that is over me.

    How hopes arise in my heart,
        As the roses bloom over the plain!
    But time is tearing their sweets apart
        And they die in darkness and awful pain.

    Ambitions burn in my breast,
        As the fires in a city rage;
    But damp creeps over their fervid zest
        And they sink away into ashen age.

    If there was pleasure for pain
        I could well be happy awhile,
    And,...

Freeman Edwin Miller

Years That Are To Be.

        Wild years that are to be
    The sad completion of my weary life,
    In ghostly mantles of despairing strife
    Your phanton dimness darkly shadows me!
    Gaunt demons dancing from your horrid halls
    Entwine my soul in gloomy arms of woe,
    While mystic fancies to my madness show
        The monsters on your walls.

        Your forms are skeletons,
    Whose bony hands with mortal fingers play,
    Where grinning skulls are heaping on the way,
    And airy specters meet the timid ones;
    Death drops his arrows from your sullen skies,
    Destruction dances in your noisome shades,
    And in the dreadful darkness of your glades
        The horrid shriekings rise.

        There in your cycles are
    Dark valleys where my wear...

Freeman Edwin Miller

Ex Anima.

    The gloomy hours of silence wake
        Remembrance and her train,
    And phantoms through the fancies chase
        The mem'ries that remain;
    And hidden in the dark embrace
        Of days that now are gone,
    I see a form, a fairy form,
        And fancy hurries on!

    I see the old familiar smile,
        I hear the tender tone,
    I greet the softness of the glance
        That cheered me when alone;
    The ruby chains of rich romance
        That bound our bosoms o'er,
    I still can know, I still can feel,
        As they were felt before.

    I name the vows, the fresh young vows,
        That we together said;
    What matters it? She can not know;
        She slumbers with the dead!
    Again the fields ...

Freeman Edwin Miller

At The Mill.

    The water-wheel goes 'round and 'round
    With heavy sighs of mournful sound,
    While dismal cries and weary moans
    Unite with sad and tearful groans,
    And weeping waves of water throw
        Afar the echoes of their sadness,
    And cadences of plaintive woe
        Dispel each little note of gladness.

    My daily life goes 'round and 'round,
    And rest for me is never found;
    The sobbing dirges of distress
    Are more than songs of happiness;
    The shadows of despairing doom
        Condemn to-day and curse to-morrow,
    And muffled terrors fill the gloom
        Which offers anguish to my sorrow.

    But hope, O, heart, for future weal!
    The waters rest beyond the wheel;
    So life may sing when toil is done...

Freeman Edwin Miller

At Perry, September 16, 1893.

    Crowds! Crowds! Crowds!
        Suddenly here as if come from the clouds
    That faded away as they came;
        Mad acres of people aflame
    With thirst for a morsel of land;
        Wild hunters of fortune, whose game
    Is ever escaping the hand;
        Vast, countless, uncountable throngs
    With restless, unrestable feet,
        That hurry the ways, full of agonized wrongs,
    For the conquest of happiness sweet;
        Wild seas of ambition whose waves of desire
    On their obstacles mighty continually beat,
        Where neither the shore nor the ocean is fixed;
        Like thunderous songs of a choir,
    Whose murmurs in music repeat;
        And confusion and chaos are terribly mingled and mixed.

        Dust! Dust! Dust!

Freeman Edwin Miller