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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO A POET GOING TO ROME: 2 by CHARLES WILLIAMS

First Line: THEN IN YOUR TURN DEMAND OF THEM AND ASK
Last Line: WHO KNEW HIGH EROS IN HIS EARTHLY SEATS.'
Subject(s): ART & ARTISTS; LITERATURE; POETRY & POETS;

Then in your turn demand of them and ask:
'Of all who late have joined your brotherhood,
With whom in closest friendship falls your mood?
With whose accomplishment? whose present task?'
And Shelley: 'Of all those who doffed their mask
Of earth among us and enjoy our good,
Tennyson, Thompson, and Rossetti brood
Nearest me, and in lyric daylight bask.'

But with a graver brow the shade of Keats:
'Since Blake and Wordsworth few have climbed to be
Upon the peak whence wise Mnemosyne
Gravely to poets their vocation metes;
Arnold not far, nor Browning; nearer, he
Who knew high Eros in his earthly seats.'



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