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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


NOWISE POOR by GUSTAV DAVIDSON

First Line: LET IT BE AS YOU SAY, THAT I AM ONE
Last Line: OF DREAMS; WINGS, OUT OF ITS SOUL'S CHRYSALIS!

Let it be as you say, that I am one
On whom no seal is set, no accolade;
A pawn of fate, advantaged and dismayed,
And routed ere the race is well begun!
Let it be that I cannot, in the sun,
Maintain my place, but am like others swayed
By the world's gods in glittering parade,
Bending the knee to each new eidolon!
Yet need I count me nowise poor in this
Reproof of yours, so long as I can still,
Out of great lack and greater grieving, fill
My eyes with beauty where no beauty is:
Achieving in the city's roar a hill
Of dreams; wings, out of its soul's chrysalis!



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