Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PALIMPSEST, by BERNICE LESBIA KENYON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PALIMPSEST, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Is it not strange to think that you alone
Last Line: Now it were better if you had not read?
Alternate Author Name(s): Gilkyson, Walter, Mrs.
Subject(s): Language; Writing & Writers; Words; Vocabulary


IS it not strange to think that you alone
Could clear the page—renew the lustre—find
Under the obvious, the long unknown
And secret perfect writings of the mind?
Thus in an idle hour you can erase
All blacker words, set broadly to obscure
What lies beneath, whose substance has no place
Among new ways that will not long endure.

I wonder, when you read the script aright,
Untwist the intricate and complex theme,
To make it clear before your inner sight,
If you will stand inscrutably; and dream,
(Vaguely, perhaps, the thought unformed, unsaid)
Now it were better if you had not read?





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