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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PRELUDE. THE POET by JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER

First Line: STILL FRAGRANT OF THE SPRING FOR EVER
Last Line: THE RAREST RECOMPENSE OF HEAVEN.

STILL fragrant of the spring for ever,
While times and generations fade,
The wreath of laureate endeavour
Blooms in the song the initiate poet has made;
Ancestral virtue still unsleeping
He tends for kingdoms yet to be,
And incorruptibly is keeping
The gates of immortality;
And through the poet still is given
The rarest recompense of heaven.



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