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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


POET AND SCIENTIST by MARION DOYLE

First Line: SUNLIT DAY AND STARLIT NIGHT
Last Line: BUT NEVER CARE TO MEASURE IT.
Subject(s): LIGHT; POETRY & POETS; SCIENCE; SUN; SCIENTISTS;

Sunlit day and starlit night
Men of science measure light.

We, who walk and never care
How long light takes from here to there,
But linger on a treeless hill
Where light blooms like a daffodil,
Where light flows from the evening star
Like water from a copper jar --
We, whose sunlight gilds the grass
Like wine from heaven's down-turned glass
In a meadow at high noon --
Who hear it in a cricket's croon,
Who see besotted bumblebees
Wading sunlight to their knees
In a tiger lily's throat,
We make genuflection to
The rainbow in a drop of dew
Hoarding twilight, sunset, dawn
And remembered moonlight on
A lost and lovely woman's face,
Light no darkness can erase.

We hold light to treasure it
But never care to measure it.



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