The Year's End by Marie Van Vorst
The speaker mourns the death of her Love and confronts an emptied future, asking repeatedly what course remains for her. Future days appear like candles surrounding a bier, while time advances inexorably as a shining sickle that cuts down every flower without pause. Watching in fog and rain with bowed head, she finds that memory cannot console grief; despite the past, fresh tears reveal that her wounded heart remains unhealed and uncertain of its way forward.
By Marie Van Vorst · First published 1901 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Elegy, Love Poetry · 126 words
First lines
What are my ways now that my Love is dead? / As candles round a bier stand future days. / Must I then read in annals of years fled / What are my ways? / On, the Time-reaping shining sickle sways; / I watch in fog and rain with bended head; / And for no flower swathe the cold blade stays. / If memory were a solace, hearts that bled / Were healed long since! . Now the quick tear betrays / I may not with my past be comforted: / What are my ways?
What this Textopian page supports
The Year's End is listed on Textopian as a poem by Marie Van Vorst, dated 1901 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Marie Van Vorst
- Date: 1901 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Elegy, Love Poetry, Mourning Poetry, Meditative Poetry
- Length: 126 words
- Structure: 1 section, 1 paragraphs
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- Work identity for The Year's End by Marie Van Vorst
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, highly musical first-person poem focused on an immediate emotional state rather than narrative action.
- Elegy — It mourns the death of the speaker's beloved, using images of a bier, tears, memory, and an inability to find consolation.
- Love Poetry — The central loss is explicitly defined through the death of the speaker's Love, making bereaved romantic attachment the poem's emotional core.
- Mourning Poetry — The speaker dwells on grief, bereavement, and the persistence of pain after loss.
Tags
fiction · novel · literary fiction · early twentieth century · American literature · social drama · romance · domestic life · society · relationships · marriage · family