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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON REFUSAL OF AID BETWEEN NATIONS by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Poet Analysis

First Line: NOT THAT THE EARTH IS CHANGING. O MY GOD!
Last Line: THAT THE EARTH FALLS ASUNDER, BEING OLD.
Subject(s): EUROPE;

NOT that the earth is changing, O my God!
Nor that the seasons totter in their walk,--
Not that the virulent ill of act and talk
Seethes ever as a winepress ever trod,--
Not therefore are we certain that the rod
Weighs in thine hand to smite thy world; though now
Beneath thine hand so many nations bow,
So many kings:--not therefore, O my God!--

But because Man is parcelled out in men
To-day; because, for any wrongful blow,
No man not stricken asks, 'I would be told
Why thou dost thus;' but his heart whispers then,
'He is he, I am I.' By this we know
That the earth falls asunder, being old.



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