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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO LIVES. PART 3: 7 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: LIKE ONE WHO SOLVES SOME CURIOUS ALPHABET
Last Line: I WAS THE MYSTIC VOICE I COULD NOT HEAR.

Like one who solves some curious alphabet
On desert stele . . . and then solves a word . . .
Though the God's whispering I never heard,
And though my eyes were cruelly unwet
(Harshly encountering so much to do),
I know how ineradicably absurd
That Man is but a function of the Two,
Physics and Chemistry -- that we can spell
By atom and motion (or by twitch and cell)
The ineffable Adventure I've been through . . .
I know Love, Pain, and Power are spirit-things,
My act a more than Mine or Now or Near;
One with the Will that suffers, conquers, sings,
@3I@1 was the mystic Voice I could not hear.



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