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SOEUR LOUISE DE LA MISERICORDE (1674), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have desired, and I have been desired
Last Line: Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Alternate Author Name(s): Alleyne, Ellen; Rossetti, Christina
Subject(s): Desire


I have desired, and I have been desired;
But now the days are over of desire,
Now dust and dying embers mock my fire;
Where is the hire for which my life was hired?
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Longing and love, pangs of a perished pleasure,
Longing and love, a disenkindled fire,
And memory a bottomless gulf of mire,
And love a fount of tears outrunning measure;
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Now from my heart, love's deathbed, trickles, trickles,
Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
The dross of life, of love, of spent desire;
Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles, --
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!

Oh vanity of vanities, desire;
Stunting my hope which might have strained up
Turning my garden plot to barren mire;
Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire,
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!





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