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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO FLORA'S LILY by NEWMAN HOWARD

First Line: MAID OF THE MYSTIC KIRTLE SPLASHED WITH GOLD
Last Line: CHANTING THE GREAT ANTIPHONE OF GOD!
Subject(s): LIFE; SOUL;

MAID of the mystic kirtle splashed with gold,
Heavy with scent, scriptured with starry rune,
You throbbed to life as wells a wonder tune,
A tale of things no man on earth hath told.

White silent wonder, nay are you indeed
A song of souls hid in the world's arcane
Whence through our soil they pour the golden strain,
And flute their rapture through the flowering reed?

Nay, while we pluck their paeans from our sod,
Do ours sow theirs with rose and galingale?
O dullard clay, this music breaks the veil,
Chanting the great antiphone of God!



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