WASTED DAYS
A fair slim boy not made for this world's pain.
With hair of gold thick clustering round his ears,
And longing eyes half veiled by foolish tears
Like bluest water seen through mists of
rain: -
Pale cheeks whereon no kiss hath left its stain,
Red under lip drawn for fear of Love,
And white throat whiter than the
breast of dove.
Alas! alas! if all should be in vain. -
Behind, wide fields, and reapers all a-row
In heat and
labour toiling wearily,
To no sweet sound of laughter or of lute.
The sun is shooting wide its
crimson glow,
Still the boy dreams: nor knows that night is
nigh,
And in the night-time no man gathers fruit.
-Oscar Wilde, (1854-1900)
"Wasted Days" published in
Kottabos Volume 3, No. 2 (1877) - this poem was later reworked and republished under the title
Madonna Mia in Poems, 1881.
from Project Gutenberg (public domain)
Oscar Wilde's other miscellaneous poems, 1881:
A Fragment
Impressions
An Inscription
A Lament
Le Jardin des Tuileries
Lotus Leaves
The New Remorse
On the Sale of Keats’ Love Letters
The True Knowledge
Under the Balcony