Ah Poverties, Wincings, and Sulky Retreats.
AH poverties, wincings, and sulky retreats!
Ah you foes that in conflict have overcome me!
(For what is my life, or any man's life, but a conflict
with foes—the old, the incessant war?)
You degradations—you tussle with passions and appe-
tites;
You smarts from dissatisfied friendships, (ah wounds,
the sharpest of all;)
You toil of painful and choked articulations—you mean-
nesses;
You shallow tongue-talks at tables, (my tongue the
shallowest of any;)
You broken resolutions, you racking angers, you smoth-
er'd ennuis;
Ah, think not you finally triumph—My real self has yet
to come forth;
It shall yet march forth o'ermastering, till all lies be-
neath me;
It shall yet stand up the soldier of unquestion'd victory.