Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IONA, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IONA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: On to iona! - what can she afford
Last Line: While heaven's vast sea of voices chants their praise.
Subject(s): Iona, Scotland


ON to Iona! -- What can she afford
To 'us' save matter for a thoughtful sigh,
Heaved over ruin with stability
In urgent contrast? To diffuse the WORD
(Thy Paramount, mighty Nature! and Time's Lord)
Her Temples rose, 'mid pagan gloom; but why,
Even for a moment, has our verse deplored
Their wrongs, since they fulfilled their destiny?
And when, subjected to a common doom
Of mutability, those far-famed Piles
Shall disappear from both the sister Isles,
Iona's Saints, forgetting not past days,
Garlands shall wear of amaranthine bloom,
While heaven's vast sea of voices chants their praise.






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