Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE BRITISH, A.D. 1901, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE BRITISH, A.D. 1901, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: As the light descends to drown and redeem the world
Last Line: Knew more and possessed more even than them all.
Subject(s): Great Britain - Commonwealth & Colonies; British Empire; England - Empire


AS the light descends to drown and redeem the world.
And the sea quivers answering to its depths,
And the rocks and trees stand up in the blue air like transparent
creatures,
And the wheeling pigeons are a part of it all,
So is Love among the children of men—
Without which they have no being.

For I seemed to see in vision a people that knew not Love,
With cold-mutton faces and cod-fish eyes hurrying around,
Intent on endless quests, and gathering wealth in high and low places, and
picking over the scrap-heaps of the world,
And building up carefully their own good names and reputations,
And following up clues of knowledge and philanthropy, and feeding piously
and punctually the lusts of their bodies.
And it was like half-blind folk in a dark place hurrying up and down,
Hurting against one another in lost and aimless confusion,
Weary and senseless, stupefied and without originality,
Because indeed the one thing that might make life rational and vital was
absent.
And it seemed to me that the most ignorant unbred girl or boy amongst them,
who loved another and worshiped in mortal form a divine creature,
Knew more and possessed more even than them all.





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