Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GREY WALLS by JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN

First Line: WHY, THOUGH I HAD SEEN THOSE THINGS
Last Line: YET EVER UNITED?
Subject(s): BEAUTY; WALLS;

WHY, though I had seen those things
The world has to offer
That men call most fair,
And 'broider with terms of wonder and magnificence,
Did I remain blind to beauty
Until, by chance, I saw a spray of apple-blossoms
Across an angle made by the meeting
Of two old grey walls?
Apple blossoms I had seen before,
And walls. Then why at that moment
Did something in me open
That made me understand the world's beauty
And also its pain?
And why do I know that in some strange fashion
The two are one, ever striving together,
Yet ever united?



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