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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE ODE OF PERFECT YEARS: INTRODUCTION by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)

First Line: NOW FLOWER AND PERFECT FRUIT
Last Line: MORE GRACIOUS SHOWS AND FAIR THAN THAT I MISS.

Now flower and perfect fruit
Together dress the tree,
High midsummer has come, midsummer mute
Of song, but rich to scent and sight.
The sun is high in heaven, the skies are bright
And full of blessedness,
High hope and wild endeavour
Have fled or sunk for ever;
Only the swifter seasons onward press,
And every day that goes
Is a full-scented, full-blown garden rose,
Orbed, complete.
And every hour brings its own burden sweet
Of daily duty, precious care;
Wherefrom the visible landscape calm and clear
Shows finer far, and the high heaven more near,
Than ever morning skies of sunrise were.

I miss the unbounded hope of old,
The freshness and the glow of youth;
I miss the fever and the fret,
The luminous haze of gold.
I see a mind clearer and calmer yet,
A more unselfish love, a more unclouded truth;
Such gain I take, and this
More gracious shows and fair than that I miss.



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