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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE GULLY: 6 by FRANK WILMOT

First Line: IN THIS CALM GULLY HAS BEEN GIVEN ME
Last Line: BRING BACK A CARELESS PEOPLE TO ITS GOOD?

In this calm gully has been given me
The peace that arduous yearning may not span,
The beauty that eludes our fervency
And love that comes not easily to man.

Not law, but love of thrushes guided him
Who in his wandering found this gully first;
How dark it must have seemed, how secret, dim,
Till at his feet the flowers from darkness burst!

Joyously frail the joy I have found here,
There breathes a tremulous sadness in these groves,
But 'tis not cruel; 'tis the radiant fear
That hovers round whatever thing man loves.

The dread that huddles into shuddering minds,
The false philosophies of frightened men,
Desire that sways and falls, binds and unbinds,
Shall not awake my foolish care again.

If some devoted wanderer could devise
This passage through the scented underwood,
May not man's thoughtful habit, dumb yet wise,
Bring back a careless people to its good?



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