A Last Word

by Ernest Christopher Dowson — a poem card from Justes Mots

A dark Petrarchan sonnet expressing exhaustion with life's vanity and a longing for rest in death. Dowson envisions escape to the 'Hollow Lands' where all suffering ceases and souls find peace in dissolution. The poem's grave tone and acceptance of mortality make it resonant for profound grief or existential reflection.

Let us go hence: the night is now at hand;
The day is overworn, the birds all flown;
And we have reaped the crops the gods have sown
Despair and death; deep darkness o'er the land,
Broods like an owl; we cannot understand
Laughter or tears, for we have only known
Surpassing vanity: vain things alone
Have driven our perverse and aimless band.…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection