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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 2, 3 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: YES, THOUGH THE BRINE MAY FROM THE DESERT DEEP
Last Line: BLACKNESS AND SCALDING STENCH, FOR LOVE AND FLOWERS.

Yes, though the brine may from the desert deep
Run itself sweet before it finds the foam,
O what to him, whose deep heart once a home
For love and light, is left? to walk and weep:
Still, with astonished sorrow, watch to keep
On his dead day. He weeps and knows his doom,
Yet standeth stunned; as one who climbs a steep
And, dreaming softly of the cottage room,
The faces round the porch, the rose in showers,
Gains the last height between his heart and it--
And from the windows where his children sleep
Sees the red fire fork or, later come,
Finds, where he left his home, a smouldering pit,
Blackness and scalding stench, for love and flowers.



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