Poem by Mathilde Blind

Scarabæus Sisyphus

I've watched thee, Scarab! Yea, an hour in vain
   I've watched thee, slowly toiling up the hill,
   Pushing thy lump of mud before thee still
With patience infinite and stubborn strain.
Strive as thou mayst, spare neither time nor pain,
   To screen thy burden from all chance of ill;
   Push, push, with all a beetle's force of will,
Thy ball, alas! rolls ever down again.

Toil without end! And why? That after thee
   Dim hosts of groping Scarabs too shall climb
This self-same height? Accursèd progeny
   Of Sisyphus, what antenatal crime
Has doomed us too to roll incessantly
   Life's Stone, recoiling from the Alps of time?

1. Love-Trilogy
2. The Desert
3. Mourning Women
4. Once We Played
5. I Planted a Rose Tree

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