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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 2, 30 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: YET EVEN MID MERRY BOYHOOD'S TRICKS AND SCAPES
Last Line: DIM BODINGS WHEREFORE? NOW INDEED I KNOW.

Yet even mid merry boyhood's tricks and scapes,
Early my heart a deeper lesson learnt:
Wandering alone by many a mile of burnt
Black woodside, that but the snowflake decks and drapes;
And I have stood beneath Canadian sky
In utter solitudes, where the cricket's cry
Appals the heart, and fear takes visible shapes;
And on Long Island's void and isolate capes
Heard the sea break like iron bars. And still
In all I seemed to hear the same deep dirge
Borne in the wind, the insect's tiny trill,
And crash and jangle of the shaking surge,
And knew not what they meant, prophetic woe?
Dim bodings wherefore? Now indeed I know.



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