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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PHILIPPIAN by HILDEGARDE FLANNER

First Line: WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY' - AH, SAINT PAUL
Last Line: THE WORD YOU SENT FROM ROME TO MAKE MEN WISE.
Subject(s): PAUL, SAINT (1ST CENTURY); SAUL OF TARSUS;

@3"Whatsoever things are lovely"@1 -- ah, Saint Paul
I dare not think on loveliness at all,
For fear I see a face I must not see,
And long for hands that are not stretched to me;
For fear I break a flower and wish a thing
That is not mine for garnering.

@3"Whatsoever things are lovely . . . think on these."@1
Oh, bring the eyes to beauty, bend the knees!
Was it a silent or a singing way
That Paul or Ephesus knelt down to pray?
No matter, for all lively things are pain
To me become Philippian in vain.
Ah, Paul, I practice in perverted guise
The word you sent from Rome to make men wise.



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