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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TRICKSTERS by WILLIAM ROSE BENET

Poet Analysis

First Line: I AM BEWILDERED STILL AND TEASED BY ELVES
Last Line: ARCHANGELS, HEROES, -- RASCALS YET UNHUNG!
Subject(s): FAIRIES; ELVES;

I am bewildered still and teased by elves
That cloud about me even through city streets.
One sings a stave and one a dream repeats,
One, crueler, in some old resentment delves.
I am aware they are my other selves,
Yet to what dazzling vision each entreats,
Casting a glamour over shams and cheats,
Ennobling can't buzzing by tens and twelves!
So then my smiling grieves the passerby.
I strut in all vocations not my own,
Wearing the centuries like a baldric slung;
Whilst shabby I gawk at this splendid I.
Chronos and Momus through my lipe intone,
Archangels, heroes, -- rascals yet unhung!



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