Wishes

Dora Sigerson Shorter 1866 (Dublin) – 1918



I wish we could live as the flowers live,
To breathe and to bloom in the summer and sun;
To slumber and sway in the heart of the night,
And to die when our glory had done.
  
I wish we could love as the bees love,
To rest or to roam without sorrow or sigh;
With laughter, when, after the wooer had won,
Love flew with a whispered good-bye.
  
I wish we could die as the birds die,
To fly and to fall when our beauty was best:
No trammels of time on the years of our face;
And to leave but an empty nest.
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
76

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBAB BCXC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 492
Words 107
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4

Dora Sigerson Shorter

Dora Sigerson 18661918 was an Irish poet who after her marriage in 1895 wrote under the name Dora Sigerson Shorter She was born in Dublin Ireland the daughter of George Sigerson a surgeon and writer and Hester ne Varian also a writer She was a major figure of the Irish Literary Revival publishing many collections of poetry from 1893 Her friends included Katharine Tynan a noted Irish-born poet and author Rose Kavanagh and Alice Furlong writers and poets In 1895 she married Clement King Shorter an English journalist and literary critic They lived together in London until her death Source Wikipedia more…

All Dora Sigerson Shorter poems | Dora Sigerson Shorter Books

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