Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AS IT LOOKED THEN, by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AS IT LOOKED THEN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In a sick shade of spruce, moss-webbed, rock-fed
Last Line: Arching a world where nothing had occurred.


In a sick shade of spruce, moss-webbed, rock-fed,
Where, long unfollowed by sagacious man,
A scrub that once had been a pathway ran
Blindly from nowhere and to nowhere led,
One might as well have been among the dead
As half way there alive; so I began
Like a malingering pioneer to plan
A vain return -- with one last look ahead.

And it was then that like a spoken word
Where there was none to speak, insensibly
A flash of blue that might have been a bird
Grew soon to the calm wonder of the sea --
Calm as a quiet sky that looked to be
Arching a world where nothing had occurred.





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