Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SEALED WORD, by HORTENSE KING FLEXNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SEALED WORD, by                    
First Line: Not by the spring
Last Line: Against the too light perishing of leaves.
Subject(s): Cold; Death; Silence; Dead, The


Not by the Spring,
Nor the sun-doubled scent
Of lilac, heavy-headed;
Not by the wing
Of the secret thrush, nor new leaf bent
And drooping like a tired hand at the wrist,
Not by the thicket threaded
With beads in a green mist,
Are we persuaded earth is never spent;

But when in the Autumn night,
The thinning nut trees, hazel, oak and beech,
Send down their shells locked tight,
To the frosted mold,
Or sharp precarious ledge—
We trust this speech;
The haunted mind receives
From root and bough,
A word so sealed to last against all cold.
The sound of heavy dropping is a pledge,
A sober vow
Against the too light perishing of leaves.




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