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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BLACK MAGIC, by ROBERT SILLIMAN HILLYER Poet's Biography
First Line: Three friends of mine who know my heart
Last Line: Between the whorls of smoking myrrh.
Subject(s): Death; Magic; Dead, The
First Line: Three friends of mine who know my heart
Last Line: Between the whorls of smoking myrrh.
Subject(s): Death; Magic; Dead, The
Three friends of mine who know my heart,
I have decreed your death to-day,
And through what means, and by what art,
Who but yourselves could ever say?
I could not suffer you to part
Flinging my secrets on your way.
Who knows through what impetuous word
My lore escapes your careless lips,
Through what small syllable the bird
That was my golden captive, slips
And sings to those who, having heard,
Will slay it with envenomed quips?
That King of Knossos who would build
A Labyrinth around his thought,
Sagaciously and justly willed
Death to the architects who wrought,
And thus the winged word was stilled
Which once set free is never caught.
Friends whom I love, for fear I might
Have cause to love you less, I stir
Three melting forms of wax, and light
Three tapers for three friends that were,
Till three slim phantoms take their flight
Between the whorls of smoking myrrh.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT
FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT
TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT
CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY
NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND
ELEGY ON A DEAD MERMAID WASHED ASHORE AT PLYMOUTH ROCK by ROBERT SILLIMAN HILLYER