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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A CHARACTER AND A QUESTION by ANONYMOUS

First Line: "A DUBIOUS, STRANGE, UNCOMPREHENDED LIFE"
Last Line: "STARS IN HIS HAND, AND SHALL NOT HE JUDGE WELL?"
Subject(s): LIFE;

A DUBIOUS, strange, uncomprehended life,
A roll of riddles with no answer found;
A sea-like soul which plummet cannot sound,
Torn with belligerent winds at mutual strife.

The god in him hath taken unto wife
A daughter of the pit, and, strongly bound
In coils of snake-like hair about him wound,
Dies, straining hard to raise the severing knife.

For such a sunken soul, what room in heaven?
For such a soaring soul, what place in hell?
Can those desires be damned, those doings shriven,
Or in some lone mid-region must he dwell
Forever? Lo! God sitteth with the seven
Stars in his hand, and shall not he judge well?



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