I like a look of Agony, 1
Because I know it's true－
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe－
The Eyes glaze once－and that is Death－5
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.
Because I know it's true－
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe－
The Eyes glaze once－and that is Death－5
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.
(F.339/J.241)
[1] Agony:: agony column, a newspaper column for personal advertisements, mostly for missing persons.
[2] true:: true stories.
[3, 4] sham, simulate:: people normally don't deceive or feign in this way.
[5] Death:: a message of one's family member's death in the column.
[8] homely Anguish strung:: an anxious request of connection from one's family.
The top of the second column of the first page of the Times is the place where the printers "pile the agony." Here we find the different letters of the alphabet addressing each other in terms of the most frantic grief or gentle reproach. ─ The People's Journal, Volume 3 (1847)
The contents of the little volume now presented to the public have been taken from the second column (commonly called the "Agony Column") of the Times newspaper. ...
PHILIP.－Would PHILIP like to hear of his MOTHER'S DEATH? Thursday, November 7, 1816.
WILLIAM, thou wilt go to sea－thou shalt go; but O RETURN, and first receive the blessings of a heart-broken father, of a heart-broken Mother! O my son William, my son, my son William! Would God I had died for thee, O William, my son, my son! Tuesday, July 15-16, 1851. ─ The Agony Column of the "Times" 1800-1870 (1881)