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YORK STAIRS by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: MANY A MUSING EYE RETURNS TO THEE
Last Line: BARTER IS GOD, WHILE BEAUTY PERISHETH.
Subject(s): LONDON;

MANY a musing eye returns to thee,
Against the lurid street disconsolate,
Who kept in green domains thy bridal state,
With young tide-waters leaping at thy knee;
And lest the ravening smoke, and enmity,
Corrode thee quite, thy lover sighs, and straight
Desires thee safe afar, too graceful gate!
Throned on a terrace of the Boboli.

Nay, nay, thy use is here. Stand queenly thus
Till the next fury; teach the time and us
Leisure and will to draw a serious breath:
Not wholly where thou art the soul is cowed,
Nor the fooled capital proclaims aloud
Barter is god, while Beauty perisheth.




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