"Farewell!"

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Title:     "Farewell!"
Author: Bert Leston Taylor [More Titles by Taylor]

(Evoked by Calverley's "Forever.")

"Farewell!" Another gloomy word
As ever into language crept.
'Tis often written, never heard
Except

In playhouse. Ere the hero flits
(In handcuffs) from our pitying view,
"Farewell!" he murmurs, then exits
R. U.

"Farewell!" is much too sighful for
An age that has not time to sigh.
We say, "I'll see you later," or
"Good-bye!"

"Fare well" meant long ago, before
It crept tear-spattered into song,
"Safe voyage!" "Pleasant journey!" or
"So long!"

But gone its cheery, old-time ring:
The poets made it rime with knell.
Joined, it became a dismal thing--
"Farewell!"

"Farewell!" Into the lover's soul
You see fate plunge the cruel iron.
All poets use it. It's the whole
Of Byron.

"I only feel--farewell!" said he;
And always tearful was the telling.
Lord Byron was eternally
Farewelling.

"Farewell!" A dismal word, 'tis true.
(And why not tell the truth about it?)
But what on earth would poets do
Without it!

[The end]
Bert Leston Taylor's poem: "Farewell!"

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