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PRISON OF CERVANTES by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Poet Analysis

First Line: SEAT OF ALL WOES! THOUGH NATURE'S FIRM DECREE
Last Line: BY AVON CEASED 'NEATH THE SAME APRIL'S SKIES?
Subject(s): CERVANTES, MIGUEL DE (1547-1616); CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE;

SEAT of all woes! Though Nature's firm decree
The narrowing soul with narrowing dungeon bind,
Yet was his free of motion as the wind,
And held both worlds, of spirit and sense, in fee.
In charmed communion with his dual mind
He wandered Spain, himself both knight and hind,
Redressing wrongs he knew must ever be.
His humor wise could see life's long deceit,
Man's baffled aims, nor therefore both despise;
His knightly nature could ill fortune greet
Like an old friend. Whose ever such kind eyes
That pierced so deep, such scope, save his whose feet
By Avon ceased 'neath the same April's skies?



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