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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO LIVES. PART 3: 5 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: WHAT IS IT LIKE (YOU ASK PERPLEXED), THIS FEAR?
Last Line: IN INTELLECT, THE MAN, FROM JOY EXILED.

What is it like (you ask perplexed), this fear? --
Fancy yourself compelled to walk a plank
From cliff to lofty cliff with reeling shank;
Fancy yourself a swimmer, in the rear
Of some white ship that nevermore draws near;
Fancy yourself entangled in the dank
Morasses, with the elephants that sank,
As sole companions, save the moon's half-sphere --
'Tis like such times. The safe bright world of tree
And dell and house is round me where I roam,
But so estranged, through what's estranged in me,
That it seems horribly no more my home. . .
In mood, the lost, the panic-stricken child;
In intellect, the man, from joy exiled.



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