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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 5, 15 by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN

First Line: LET ME GIVE SOMETHING! - THOUGH MY SPRING BE DONE
Last Line: THE PEACE THAT PASSETH UNDERSTANDING PASSED.

Let me give something!--though my spring be done,
Give to the children, ere their summertime:
Though stirred with grief, like rain let fall my rhyme
And tell of one whose aim was much, of one
Whose strife was this: that in his thought should be
Some power of wind, some drenching of the sea,
Some drift of stars across a darkling coast,
Imagination, insight, memory, awe,
And dear New England nature first and last,--
Whose end was high, whose work was well-begun:
Of one who from his window looked and saw
His little hemlocks in the morning sun,
And while he gazed, into his heart almost
The peace that passeth understanding passed.



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