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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNETS: 2. OF A CERTAIN SOCIAL CHIROMANCY by NEWMAN HOWARD

First Line: STRANGER WHO WOULD MY OFFERED PALM PERUSE
Last Line: BITE DUST BENEATH US, BEGGARED BY THE CLAIM.
Subject(s): LIFE; LOVE; STRANGERS;

STRANGER who would my offered palm peruse,
You are to me a fair untravelled land;
My life meets yours as on some golden strand
A new keel rings, a voice acclaiming news
Of foreign ports, and crying, Comrade, choose!
I lay my pinnace freight at your command,
Free merchandise for him who takes my hand,
Nor murmur if the commerce he refuse.

Only I charge you in my sovereign's name,
The king of Love whose livery proud I don,
Seek not to read my fortune, rank or fame:
Honour makes all men equal; they alone
Who boast themselves our betters, blind to shame,
Bite dust beneath us, beggared by the claim.



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