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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HAWTHORNE by CARL SANDBURG

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE LIVED UNDER AN ARCH OF GLOOMS
Last Line: THE WIND WHIPPING THOSE SCARVES, OF COURSE, %IS ANOTHER META
Would you see the works of Hawthorne
As flitting shadows on a wall,
Or else a splendor of mist and color
Changing, elusive, and fleet?
Would you see his pages of life
As gray and furled and monochrome,
Or overflushed with the bloom and tinct
Of rose and purple and gold?
For what are men in the dim unknown
Of time and distance, and who shall say
That genius, flowering aloof,
And sage and seer, and the tinct of a rose
In a dusk of furled grays may not blend
To a brightness and beauty of life, of life?
And so I say, for the sake of the world,
His works should be read, studied, and understood.




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