-Too Many.

Percy Shelley 1968 (Mogadishu)



   "Too many fall from great and good
      For you to doubt the likelihood."
                      -(fro) Robert Frost's
                       (poem) "Provide, Provide."

Too many have come and gone--
  Too many sought and thought--
For you to have lost or won;
  Too many try to climb up their dreams
                in light,
If only too fast they are washed
                ashore--
  Or left out to be  'acquinted with the
                night,'
With no second chance, beaten to the
                core;
  And too many have put their love with
                trust
In brute, brute another's heart,
  In the end with no love but driven to
               dust;
Why, too many fail to give another
    Try, impatient to treat
     with hate
The very lover with
     whom they felt
          together,
  Hence with no heart,
     and for nothing in
          hope to wait.
     -by Hakim H. Kassim
      (d. June 06, 2023)

-NOTE: the quatation in Line 6 ("acquinted with the night") comes from Robert Frost's (poem) "One Acquinted with the Night" (1928).

About this poem

-The poet addresses ironies and contradictions that nonetheless are fundamental to human existence on pmanet-earth.

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Written on June 06, 2023

Submitted by hakimk.71556 on December 23, 2023

53 sec read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABX XXXBCXDECEDFGHXGIXJFXIHXJXX C
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,063
Words 173
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 27, 1

Percy Shelley

Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, the poet was raised in a politically prominent family; yet in his early teens, the poet and his family emigrated to the United States, where the poet lived for nearly two decades. Kassim started writing and publishing poetry while in junior college, at a relatively young age, and almost spontaneously fell with poets and poems, and has so been ever since; particularly the Romantic poets--William Wordsworth, George Gordon, Lord Byron, John Keats and Percy Shelley--drew his attention and engaged hìs intellect, so much so that, to this day, they represent more or less 'the epitome' of what Poesy means to him.The poet now lives in his land of birth and works as a freelance journalist and writer. Kassim is currently preparing manuscript of what he hopes to be his first book of poetry; the poet feels a particular attachment to John Keats and Percy Shelley for their vehement opposition to the inhumane effects on ordinary people such as the consequences of industrial development in their lifetimes–and reminds us that technological progress today does the same: ‘Weep, for the world is wrong!’ (emphasis supplied) (Percy Shelley, “Dirge”) more…

All Percy Shelley poems | Percy Shelley Books

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    "-Too Many." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/176723/-too-many.>.

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