Albert Schirding
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
Jonas Keene thought his lot a hard one
Because his children were all failures.
But I know of a fate more trying than that:
It is to be a failure while your children are successes.
For I raised a brood of eagles
Who flew away at last, leaving me
A crow on the abandoned bough.
Then, with the ambition to prefix Honorable to my name,
And thus to win my children's admiration,
I ran for County Superintendent of Schools,
Spending my accumulations to win -- and lost.
That fall my daughter received first prize in Paris
For her picture, entitled, "The Old Mill" --
(It was of the water mill before Henry Wilkin put in steam.)
The feeling that I was not worthy of her finished me.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 39 sec read
- 56 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFGHAIJKLMF |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 669 |
Words | 130 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 15 |
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"Albert Schirding" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/8496/albert-schirding>.
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