The End Poem by Sudhindranath Dutta

This gloomy day of rain I spent in reverie.
Throwing ajar the gates of my heart,
I made an easy passage for memories.
With sightless eyes I saw

Another day like this, framed in the curving sky;
In the rain's endless lamentation
Heard the tender greeting of that voice.

The fury of the storm as it pressed upon the shutters
Echoed the impotent rage of my ruined heart
Against a harsh, indifferent, silent God.
Rain ceased as evening came; The twilight's dying flame

With life's last effort, suddenly flashed
The signal for extinction. And then darkness spread
Within, without, its winding sheet.

No hope, it seemed,
No words to tell of this caged defeat.
It seemed that Death was closing in,
Narrowing its circles in slow manouevres.

Scurrying like a mouse in its hole,
Putrid crumbs I had stored through all my years
In my miser's coffers.

But now the game was up,
Closed the executioner's trap,
And soon the cleansing blade will fall
Annihilating all my beggarliness.