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Strange Jokes.

By Sidney Lanier

Topics: classic

Well: Death is a huge omnivorous Toad     Grim squatting on a twilight road.     He catcheth all that Circumstance     Hath tossed to him.     He curseth all who upward glance     As lost to him.     Once in a whimsey mood he sat     And talked of life, in proverbs pat,     To Eve in Eden, - "Death, on Life" -     As if he knew!     And so he toadied Adam's wife     There, in the dew.     O dainty dew, O morning dew     That gleamed in the world's first dawn, did you     And the sweet grass and manful oaks     Give lair and rest     To him who toadwise sits and croaks     His death-behest?     Who fears the hungry Toad? Not I!     He but unfetters me to fly.     The German still, when one is dead,     Cries out "Der Tod!"     But, pilgrims, Christ will walk ahead     And clear the road.     Macon, Georgia, July, 1867.

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"Well: Death is a huge omnivorous Toad..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Sidney Lanier delivers a powerful performance in "Strange Jokes."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Sidney Lanier

"Well: Death is a huge omnivorous Toad..." by Sidney Lanier

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Sidney Lanier

About Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) was an American poet and musician whose poems—including "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Song of the Chattahoochee"—are known for their musical quality and celebration of the Southern landscape.

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"To-day the woods are trembling through and through..."

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