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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AMIEL by ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON

First Line: A FEW THERE ARE WHO TO THE TROUBLED SOUL
Last Line: SECRETS TO SORROW NOT IN THE SIBYL'S BOOK.

A FEW there are who to the troubled soul
Can lay the ear with that physician-art
Which by a whispered accent in the heart
Follows the lurking treason that hath stole
Into the citadel; -- a few whose scroll
Of warning bears our safety, -- is a chart
Of our unsounded seas, and doth impart
Courage to hold the spirit to its goal.

Of such is Amiel, lonely as a saint, --
Or as an eagle dwelling on peaks, in shade
Of clouds, which now he cleaves for one wide look
At the green earth, now for a circle faint
Nearer the sun. Once more has Truth betrayed
Secrets to Sorrow not in the sibyl's book.



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