Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EAGLE SONNETS: 2 by CLEMENT WOOD

First Line: I CANNOT KNOW THAT OTHER MEN EXIST
Last Line: IT IS ONE'S SELF, AND KNOWS NO FURTHER RANGE.
I cannot know that other men exist:
It is but a belief, obscurely guessed.
Within the mirror, brain, they move in mist;
A wall of air holds back the friendliest breast.
To me they are. . . . And so to me the vision
My fancy builds this moment in the air,
Food for a clearer glance's high derision,
Food for a thoughtful hour's thin despair.
For knowledge is from skill of inward seeing,
Not bred of eye, or ear, or touch, alone:
It is the younger, truer name of being,
No gossip spread by careless flesh and bone;
And though from seed to fruit to seed it change,
It is one's self, and knows no further range.



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