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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ESCAPE by JACK MERTEN

First Line: HOW TENDERLY MY ANTIQUE GRACE
Last Line: FOR TROY'S TEN YEARS MY GRACIOUS TRUANT.
Subject(s): ABANDONMENT; DESERTION;

HOW tenderly my antique grace
Has fled, in quiet shoes of dawn;
Leaving me like a sterile space
That gardens frown upon.

Not so vacant, ancient Greece
Nor so abandoned, Menelaus,
Questioning the tight-lipped seas
Where lovely Helen's way is.

Burn me utterly in flame
Let my tongue with fire be fluent,
If, like Troy, I yet entertain
For Troy's ten years my gracious truant.



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