Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GRAVEYARD OF DEAD CREEDS, by THOMAS HARDY


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THE GRAVEYARD OF DEAD CREEDS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I lit upon the graveyard of dead creeds
Last Line: "the melancholy marching of the years."


I LIT upon the graveyard of dead creeds
In wistful wanderings through old wastes of thought,
Where bristled fennish fungi, fruiting nought,
Amid the sepulchres begirt with weeds,

Which stone by stone recorded sanct, deceased
Catholicons that had, in centuries flown,
Physicked created man through his long groan,
Ere they went under, all their potence ceased.

When in a breath-while, lo, their spectres rose
Like wakened winds that autumn summons up: --
"Out of us cometh an heir, that shall disclose
New promise!" cried they. "And the caustic cup

We ignorantly upheld to men, be filled
With draughts more pure than those we ever distilled,
That shall make tolerable to sentient seers
The melancholy marching of the years."





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