Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RHYMELESS, by JOHN FREEMAN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RHYMELESS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You ask a rhymeless sonnet since, you say
Last Line: Words of a tongue that else had died unspoken.
Subject(s): Life; Poetry & Poets; Rhyme


YOU ask a rhymeless sonnet since, you say,
The world's untuned and discords jar the soul,
And hopes are fallen, purpose fickle; so
A broken shape is best for poetry
That would our day interpret to itself.
—But what has poetry to do with lies,
Delusions, and the misery of self-love,
That it should match the misery by its own?
Poetry is the body given by strong
Imagination to the waste of life,
The wheel on which the perfect bowl is shaped
To hold the ashes of forgotten folk;
The shell that keeps a heavenly air unbroken,
Words of a tongue that else had died unspoken.





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