Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNET: 17. THE SAME CONTINUED, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: A poet cannot strive for despotism Last Line: But widens to the boundless perfectness. Subject(s): Capital Punishment; Poetry & Poets; Wordsworth, William (1770-1850); Hanging; Executions; Death Penalty | ||||||||
A POET cannot strive for despotism; His harp falls shattered; for it still must be The instinct of great spirits to be free, And the sworn foes of cunning barbarism: He who has deepest searched the wide abysm Of that life-giving Soul which men call fate, Knows that to put more faith in lies and hate Than truth and love is the true atheism: Upward the soul forever turns her eyes: The next hour always shames the hour before; One beauty, at its highest, prophesies That by whose side it shall seem mean and poor No Godlike thing knows aught of less and less, But widens to the boundless Perfectness. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NEGATIVES by PHILIP LEVINE ALL LIFE IN A LIFE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN by ARTHUR SZE TWO FUNERALS: 2. by LOUIS UNTERMEYER BALLADE OF THE MEN WHO WERE HANGED by FRANCOIS VILLON EPITAPH IN BALLADE FORM by FRANCOIS VILLON VILLON'S EPITAPH by FRANCOIS VILLON AFTER THE BURIAL by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL |
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