Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once we three in nara walked
Last Line: Than the plain joy, three friends walked there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): Japan; Japanese


ONCE we three in Nara walked
Where pomp and fame look through the leaves;
With sabred shades we walked and talked
By lacquered gates and bow-like eaves,
By pools where carp doze through their green
Eternities, to lonelier shrines
Where mossy courtyards lie serene
Beneath some peasant-planted pines.

Less of that giant, surly bell
Whose black voice warned us at all hours
My late remembrance likes to tell,
Less of the Buddha as he lours
With thick curled skull and dead man's eye,
Of old wives' faithful groan of prayer,
Of fire-robed ritual trooping by,
Than the plain joy, three friends walked there.





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