Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON REREADING CATULLUS, by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON REREADING CATULLUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The flutes, the silver flutes began with dawn
Last Line: Or birds that brought awakening to the flutes?
Subject(s): Birds; Flutes; Music & Musicians


The flutes, the silver flutes began with dawn,
With dawn the flutes and hidden birds began;
All tremulous with stops the music ran
Of light, skilled fingers lifted or laid on;
The birds were practiced, too, and played upon
Obedient throats that tracked no casual plan:
For as they played they all looked up at Pan --
Nor had the flutes his leadership foregone.

Then I saw altars gleaming, marble-pure,
With fire -- or day -- too bright to shine in words;
Again, I saw the satyrs' quick pursuits,
The nymphs' delayed escapes, with yielding sure,
While -- was it flutes that waked the hidden birds
Or birds that brought awakening to the flutes?





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