| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | August 25 | | Chatterton | | By Charles Edward Russell (1860–1941) |
| | | | Thomas Chatterton, an English poet of extraordinary precocity, committed suicide in London at the early age of seventeen, August 25, 1770. |
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HE went his way to rest with weary feet, | |
| Home-turning as one would that long had strayed | |
| In stoniest pathways, for his love repaid | |
| With mocking laughter, for his singing sweet | |
| With fast-shut door and wind-swept echoing street. | 5 |
| Tired eyes and hopeless heart to the great shade | |
| Crept beaten back at last but unafraid, | |
| And stilled were wings for a sodden world too fleet. | |
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| He went his way; and we, in whose charmed ears | |
| Live still the sound and throbbing of his song, | 10 |
| But for this picture of his darkening years | |
| Might nothing know how bruised and baffled long | |
| His soul soared singing to the brightest spheres | |
| From that salt gulf of bitterness and wrong. | | | |
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