Skip to content
Linespedia

Poem: At Verona

Topics: classic

How steep the stairs within Kings' houses are     For exile-wearied feet as mine to tread,     And O how salt and bitter is the bread     Which falls from this Hound's table, better far     That I had died in the red ways of war,     Or that the gate of Florence bare my head,     Than to live thus, by all things comraded     Which seek the essence of my soul to mar.     'Curse God and die: what better hope than this?     He hath forgotten thee in all the bliss     Of his gold city, and eternal day'     Nay peace: behind my prison's blinded bars     I do possess what none can take away     My love, and all the glory of the stars.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"How steep the stairs within Kings' houses are..."

"Poem: At Verona" is a quintessential example of Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"I.     O goat-foot God of Arcady!     This modern world is grey and old,     And what remains to us of thee?     No more the shepherd lads"

"(To Marcel Schwob in friendship and in admiration)     In a dim corner of my room for longer than my fancy thinks     A beautiful and silent Sp"

"A lily-girl, not made for this world's pain,     With brown, soft hair close braided by her ears,     And longing eyes half veiled by slumberous"

"The apple trees are hung with gold,     And birds are loud in Arcady,     The sheep lie bleating in the fold,     The wild goat runs across the"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"I.     O goat-foot God of Arcady!     This moder..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.