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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 12 by GEORGE CABOT LODGE

First Line: HUSH CHILD! BE STILL AND GIVE THY FINGERS REST
Last Line: AND IF LIFE DIES THOU SHALT NOT EVEN CARE!
Subject(s): CHILDREN; CHILDHOOD;

Hush child! Be still and give thy fingers rest,
Thine eyes the darkness, and thy lips that press
Hard on the lips of life with fierce caress,
Ease from their hunger and thy guideless quest.
Ask of the vacant eyes and stirless breast
Of life's last angel, pale Forgetfulness,
Peace and release from thought's eternal stress:
She, of life's violent, fervent Gods, is best.
Peace child! Beneath her hand the fretful flame
Of long desire grows frail and faint as dream:
The immediate life is alien to despair.
Held on her heart seem life and death the same,
And nothing is at all and all things seem,
And if life dies thou shalt not even care!



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