| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| As Yonder Lamp |
| | | Charles Whitehead (1804–62) |
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| AS yonder lamp in my vacated room | |
| With arduous flame disputes the darksome night, | |
| And can, with its involuntary light, | |
| But lifeless things that near it stand, illume; | |
| Yet all the while it doth itself consume; | 5 |
| And, ere the sun begin its heavenly height | |
| With courier beams that meet the shepherd’s sight, | |
| There, whence its life arose, shall be its tomb:— | |
| So wastes my life away. Perforce confin’d | |
| To common things, a limit to its sphere, | 10 |
| It shines on worthless trifles undesign’d, | |
| With fainter ray each hour imprison’d here. | |
| Alas! to know that the consuming mind | |
| Shall leave its lamp cold, ere the sun appear! | |
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