Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A SMILING DEMON OF NOTRE DAME, by SOPHIE JEWETT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SMILING DEMON OF NOTRE DAME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Quiet as are the quiet skies
Last Line: Serene, grotesque olympian.
Alternate Author Name(s): Burroughs, Ellen


QUIET as are the quiet skies
He watches where the city lies
Floating in vision clear or dim
Through sun or rain beneath his eyes;
Her songs, her laughter, and her cries
Hour after hour drift up to him.

Her days of glory or disgrace
He watches with unchanging face;
He knows what midnight crimes are done,
What horrors under summer sun;
And souls that pass in holy death
Sweep by him on the morning's breath.

Alike to holiness and sin
He feels nor alien nor akin;
Five hundred creeping mortal years
He smiles on human joy and tears,
Man-made, immortal, scorning man;
Serene, grotesque Olympian.





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