Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PLACE DE LA BASTILLE, PARIS, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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PLACE DE LA BASTILLE, PARIS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: How dear the sky has been above this place!
Last Line: That all might stand here now and own thy name.
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Subject(s): Bastille (paris); Prisons & Prisoners


How dear the sky has been above this place!
Small treasures of this sky that we see here
Seen weak through prison-bars from year to year;
Eyed with a painful prayer upon God's grace
To save, and tears that stayed along the face
Lifted at sunset. Yea, how passing dear,
Those nights when through the bars a wind left clear
The heaven, and moonlight soothed the limpid space!

So was it, till one night the secret kept
Safe in low vault and stealthy corridor
Was blown abroad on gospel-tongues of flame.
O ways of God, mysterious evermore!
How many on this spot have cursed and wept
That all might stand here now and own Thy Name.





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