Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE IMMORTAL URN, by ELMER O. LAUGHLIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE IMMORTAL URN, by                    
First Line: Unwedded bride, immortal shepherdess!
Last Line: Gave life to them and immortality.
Subject(s): Keats, John (1795-1821); Poetry & Poets


Unwedded bride, immortal shepherdess!
Not, as sang Keats, because an artist traced
Your wistful form in sheerest loveliness
Upon an urn, you shall endure, more chaste
Than Diane; but because the poet caught
The dream divine, the aura none can see
That haunts your yearning virgin pose, and wrought,
In phrases of pure gold, your effigy.

Poised, faithful lover, who shall ever live,
Unsated yet triumphant, through all time,
Beneath cool trees that still their shade shall give,
Perennial in imperishable rhyme, --
Deft was the unknown potter's patient art
To limn, thus, love and youth so faithfully,
But 'twas the poet's understanding heart
Gave life to them and immortality.





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