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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO LIVES. PART 2: 23 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: SHE DRESSED IN WHITE THAT MORNING AND SHE PASSED
Last Line: SHE THOUGHT (AND BROODED STILL . . . TO SET ME FREE).

She dressed in white that morning and she passed
So slow, so aimless (@3was@1 she without aim,
Without some purpose that she dared not name?)
From room to room; and now and then she cast
Such piteous love upon me here and there.
I rang my Colleague on the phone to say
"Write on the board, 'my class won't meet to-day'";
And strove to still my terror and despair
That I might conquer hers. -- All, all was vain,
And turned to dead-sea apples, ashes all,
Or rather into quick-lime in her brain, --
All that I did or said. She heard my call
Upon the phone. . . 'My work was more than she,'
She thought (and brooded still . . . to set me free).



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