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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PENULTIMATE PURITAN by HELEN L. BARNES

First Line: LOOK ON BEAUTY THROUGH A DARKENED GLASS
Last Line: AZURE SPEARS, BLINDED BY A ROSE.
Subject(s): NATURE;

Look on beauty through a darkened glass,
As one who views the eclipse of the sun,
Fearful lest the sudden glories won
Will leave a stormy blindness as they pass --
(All this I knew implied in book and class)
Let not your vagrant fancy run
On starry heights nor in too distant grass;
Expose your eager, questing heart to none; --
Yet I must crouch on low rocks drenched in spray,
Hide in the woods to quiver at the song
Of hermit thrush, and I must walk in those
Hillside gardens where I go my way
Pierced through and through by the larkspur's long
Azure spears, blinded by a rose.



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