Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PARADOX, by DONALD ROBERT PERRY MARQUIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PARADOX, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis evanescence that endures
Last Line: The loveliness which dies the soonest always lives.
Alternate Author Name(s): Marquis, Don
Subject(s): Memory; Soul


'Tis evanescence that endures;
The loveliness that dies the soonest has the longest life.
The rainbow is a momentary thing,
The afterglows are ashes while we gaze,
And those soft flames of song
That burn amid the hawthorn-scented bushes of the May
Expire before the sense can fix them.
The motes of moonlight steal across the tender dusk,
And faery flutings wander from the haunted hills,
And tremble and are gone,
All bloom and fire,
All light and color, scent and sound --
All passion, which is kin to these --
Die almost in the instant of their birth.
They die, and yet they live forever,
For by their very poignance they are thrust
Deeper into the texture of that eternal stuff
Which is the soul,
And grow to unity with it; and there
The loveliness which dies the soonest always lives.





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