Willis Gaylord Clark

Willis Gaylord Clark Poems

Willis Gaylord Clark Biography

Willis Gaylord Clark (October 5, 1808 – June 12, 1841) was an American poet. He was born in Otisco, New York and the twin-brother of Lewis Gaylord Clark. Clark wrote for the Knickerbocker Magazine a series of amusing articles called Ollapodiana. Among his best known poems is The Spirit of Life (1833). In the latter part of his life, he was the chief editor of the Philadelphia Gazette. Clark died from tuberculosis in Philadelphia, June 12, 1841. His Literary Remains were published in 1844, and a reissue of his collected poems in 1847.)

The Best Poem Of Willis Gaylord Clark

Euthanasia

Methinks, when on the languid eye
Life's autumn scenes grow dim;
When evening's shadows veil the sky;
And pleasure's siren hymn
Grows fainter on the tuneless ear,
Like echoes from another sphere,
Or dreams of seraphim--
It were not sad to cast away
This dull and cumbrous load of clay.

It were not sad to feel the heart
Grow passionless and cold;
To feel those longings to depart
That cheered the good of old;
To clasp the faith which looks on high,
Which fires the Christian's dying eye,
And makes the curtain-fold
That falls upon his wasting breast,
The door that leads to endless rest.

It seems not lonely thus to lie
On that triumphant bed,
Till the pure spirit mounts on high
By white-winged seraphs led:
Where glories, earth may never know,
O'er 'many mansions' lingering glow,
In peerless lustre shed.
It were not lonely thus to soar
Where sin and grief can sting no more.

And though the way to such a goal
Lies through the clouded tomb,
If on the free, unfettered soul
There rest no stains of gloom,
How should its aspirations rise
Far through the blue unpillared skies,
Up to its final home,
Beyond the journeyings of the sun,
Where streams of living waters run!

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