Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET: POVERTY, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE


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SONNET: POVERTY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once I beheld thee, a lithe mountain maid
Last Line: Why scourge forevermore god's beauteteous earth?
Subject(s): Poverty


ONCE I beheld thee, a lithe mountain maid,
Embrowned by wholesome toils in lusty air;
Whose clear blood, nurtured by strong, primitive cheer,
Through Amazonian veins, flowed unafraid.
Broad-breasted, pearly-teethed, thy pure breath strayed,
Sweet as deep-uddered kine's curled in the rare
Bright spaces of thy lofty atmosphere,
O'er some rude cottage in a fir-grown glade.
Now, of each brave ideal virtue stripped,
O Poverty! I behold thee as thou art,
A ruthless hag, the image of woeful dearth
Or brute despair, gnawing its own starved heart.
Thou ravening wretch! fierce-eyed and monster-lipped,
Why scourge forevermore God's beauteteous earth?





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