Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A 17TH CENTURY LOOKING-GLASS, by ELIZABETH WINSTON SHEEHAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A 17TH CENTURY LOOKING-GLASS, by                    
First Line: Give up to us, o shadowed looking-glass
Last Line: Listen, heart! Have we stood here before?
Subject(s): Mirrors


Give up to us, O shadowed looking-glass,
The pictures held deep in your memory.
Through veils of gossamer let down by time,
You seem withdrawn to some far distant past.
Could we but lift them one by filmy one,
What thrilling tales would stir our sluggish blood,
What tender secrets throb alive again,
What tragedies stalk out to chill the soul!

So very old, perhaps you know the truth
If beings come and go and come again.
Do mirrored faces sunk unfathomably
Beneath your Sphinx-like depth hold measured beats
From age to age? Do soul notes, sounded once,
Vibrate and sound anew the perfect key
When old, old souls look out of youthful eyes?
Listen, Heart! Have we stood here before?





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