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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ULTIMATION by MAGDELEN EDEN BOYLE

First Line: OF TRIPOLI, OF LEBANON
Last Line: AND WARM HIS FREEZING HANDS.
Subject(s): LEBANON; SMOKING; TOBACCO; PIPES; CIGARS; CIGARETTES;
Of Tripoli, of Lebanon,
A cedar I would be,
Cerulean-piercing, iris-towered,
That leans to Galilee.

But I am of the stunted pines,
Cragged desert's salt-flayed runes,
Sere bracken of the bitter waste,
Gray Hagars of the dunes.

Then cleave with lightning scimitar,
O Lord . . . the thriftless bole,
Its futile fragments scatter wide,
The wild shore's desolate dole,

That it may chance, a far-off day,
Some wanderer on the sands
May build him here a driftwood fire,
And warm his freezing hands.



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