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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE VISION OF THE ARCHANGELS by RUPERT BROOKE

Poet Analysis

First Line: SLOWLY UP SILENT PEAKS, THE WHITE EDGE OF THE WORLD
Last Line: WITH SORROWFUL QUIET FACES DOWNWARD TO THE PLAIN.
Subject(s): SOLDIERS' WRITINGS;

Slowly up silent peaks, the white edge of the world,
Trod four archangels, clear against the unheeding sky,
Bearing, with quiet even steps, and great wings furled,
A little dingy coffin; where a child must lie,
It was so tiny. (Yet, you had fancied, God could never
Have bidden a child turn from the spring and the sunlight,
And shut him in that lonely shell, to drop for ever
Into the emptiness and silence, into the night. . . .)

They then from the sheer summit cast, and watched it fall,
Through unknown glooms, that frail black coffin -- and therein
God's little pitiful Body lying, worn and thin,
And curled up like some crumpled, lonely flower-petal --
Till it was no more visible; then turned again
With sorrowful quiet faces downward to the plain.






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