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The town down the river

Chapter 29: AU REVOIR
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About This Book

A sequence of sombre, often ironic poems that portray isolated individuals and communal life through compact narratives and lyrical portraiture. The collection alternates longer sequences and standalone pieces to examine ambition, failure, memory, aging, and the persistence of imagination amid ordinary surroundings. Recurring observers address youth, dreamers, and the weather of fortune while imagery pairs domestic detail with stark solitude. Shifts between conversational monologue and formal meditation yield quiet tragedies, wry character sketches, and reflective meditations delivered in plain yet resonant language.

AU REVOIR

(MARCH 23, 1909.)

What libellers of destiny
Are these who are afraid
That something yet without a name
Will seize him in the shade?
Though fever-demons may compound
Their most malefic brew,
No fever can defeat the man
Who still has work to do;
Though mighty lions walk about,
Inimical to see,
No lion yet was ever fed
On things that are to be.
Wherefore, and of necessity,
Will he meet what may come;
And from a nation will be missed
As others are from home.