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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON HEARING THE NEWS FROM VENICE by GEORGE MEREDITH

Poet Analysis

First Line: NOW DUMB IS HE WHO WAKED THE WORLD TO SPEAK
Last Line: WHEN SONG IS MURK FROM SPRINGS OF TURBID SOURCE.
Subject(s): BROWNING, ROBERT (1812-1889); DEATH; EPITAPHS; POETRY & POETS; DEAD, THE;

Now dumb is he who waked the world to speak,
And voiceless hangs the world beside his bier.
Our words are sobs, our cry of praise a tear:
We are the smitten mortal, we the weak.
We see a spirit on Earth's loftiest peak
Shine, and wing hence the way he makes more clear:
See a great Tree of Life that never sere
Dropped leaf for aught that age or storms might wreak.
Such ending is not Death: such living shows
What wide illumination brightness sheds
From one big heart, to conquer man's old foes:
The coward, and the tyrant, and the force
Of all those weedy monsters raising heads
When Song is murk from springs of turbid source.



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