Great Regulars: While it signals the importance

of other values to the religious believer, looking forward to eternal rewards "over there", it seems more immediately to express an ordinarily glum fit of the "winter blues". For modern readers, averse to preaching, that tone lends an attractive human quality to the poem--and to the poet.

[by Francis Quarles]

The Shortness of Life

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: The Shortness of Life by Francis Quarles

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