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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNETS FROM AN UNKNOWN IN WARTIME: 1 by BEATRICE WITTE RAVENEL

First Line: THEY WALK NOT SOFTLY, WOMEN WHO HAVE KNOWN
Last Line: THIS BEING THE WAY OF GODS...SHOULD I NOT KNOW?
Subject(s): WAR;

They walk not softly, women who have known
The intimacy of the god. Their eyes
Burn sultry through the dark like tropic skies;
For they have felt the sunrise, they alone
The quicksand's strangling sorcery, and the drone
Of worlds upon their courses underlies
The music of their pulse. The world-song dies
Within them, they the ultimate overtone.

They are not lonely any more. The spell
Great lovers use, their secret, is but this:
So strange the first, so natural every kiss:
Quietly with the mighty rhythms flow,
At home with love, as music haunts the shell,
This being the way of gods...Should I not know?



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