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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MY GUIDE by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: LIFT UP THINE EYES, MY CHILD
Last Line: LIT OF HER LIGHT.

Lift up thine eyes, my child,
That I may see
The innocence that smiled
In one like thee --
Thy mother gone.

Scarce older than thou art,
With maiden power
She won a wayward heart,
That till that hour
Had worshipped none.

Swift as a bird of spring
In joyous flight,
That cleaves with shadeless wing
The sea of light,
Our morning fled.

When, sudden gloom -- and lo!
A troubled sky --
A wail of stifled woe --
An agony --
And hope was dead.

Then, as a crystal tear
Of sorrow born,
Didst thou, pale star, appear,
Like me forlorn
In cheerless night.

I wept, and weeping turned
To gaze on thee,
And through the mist discerned
A beam for me,
Lit of her light.



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