Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ARGUMENT, by STANLEY JOHNSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ARGUMENT, by                    
First Line: You'd argued down so much of revelry
Last Line: We had less need of argument than love.
Subject(s): Love; Quarrels; Arguments; Disagreements


You'd argued down so much of revelry;
You'd trimmed your virgin lamp so holy wise,
For once I hoped the flinty cavalry
Of storm would strike a madness in your eyes.

But though the white limbs of the sycamore,
So Pagan, where no whiter than your own,
You saw no pleasant satyrs by the door
Nor passion in the thunder's monotone.

You wondered, if the battened crows were driven,
If fanged lightning walked the fields in flame,
What right had we with mirth, what hope of heaven,
Thus safely housed? -- you wondered in God's name.

And so with right and wrong the night we strove --
We had less need of argument than love.





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