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AS IT LOOKED THEN by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: IN A SICK SHADE OF SPRUCE, MOSS-WEBBED, ROCK-FED
Last Line: ARCHING A WORLD WHERE NOTHING HAD OCCURRED.

In a sick shade of spruce, moss-webbed, rock-fed,
Where, long unfollowed by sagacious man,
A scrub that once had been a pathway ran
Blindly from nowhere and to nowhere led,
One might as well have been among the dead
As half way there alive; so I began
Like a malingering pioneer to plan
A vain return -- with one last look ahead.

And it was then that like a spoken word
Where there was none to speak, insensibly
A flash of blue that might have been a bird
Grew soon to the calm wonder of the sea --
Calm as a quiet sky that looked to be
Arching a world where nothing had occurred.



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