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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE PRISONER by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE

First Line: A LUMP, THEY SAID, FROM SOME PRIMEVAL STATE
Last Line: SET FREE BY HIM WHOSE TOUCH MAY KINDLE ALL.
Subject(s): PRISONS & PRISONERS; PROPHECY & PROPHETS; SOCRATES (470-399 B.C.); CONVICTS;

A LUMP, they said, from some primeval state:
Dark, rough, and seeming very little worth:
I laid it by an ember in my grate,
And, lo, an "imprisoned splendor" issued forth!

O you who preach, and you who teach, think not
That robe or book will ever win the mark:
If you indeed would stir another's thought,
Lay mind to mind: communicate the spark.

Plato was kindled, when he felt the flame
Of Socrates on his own spirit fall;
From John the fisherman the prophet came,
Set free by Him whose touch may kindle all.



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