Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A HEAVEN UPON EARTH, by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A HEAVEN UPON EARTH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: For there are two heavens, sweet
Last Line: And setting suns look heavenly on their grave.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hunt, Leigh
Variant Title(s): Two Heavens
Subject(s): Home


FOR there are two heavens, sweet,
Both made of love, -- one, inconceivable
Even by the other, so divine it is;
The other, far on this side of the stars,
By men call'd home, when some blest pair are met
As we are now; sometimes in happy talk,
Sometimes in silence, each at gentle task
Of book, or household need, or meditation,
By summer-moon, or curtain'd fire in frost;
And by degrees there come, -- not always come,
Yet mostly, -- other, smaller inmates there,
Cherubic-faced, yet growing like those two,
Their pride and playmates, not without meek fear,
Since God sometimes to his own cherubim
Takes those sweet cheeks of earth. And so twixt joy,
And love, and tears, and whatsoever pain
Man fitly shares with man, these two grow old;
And if indeed blest thoroughly, they die
In the same spot, and nigh the same good hour,
And setting suns look heavenly on their grave.





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