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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO THE LIONS by FRANK WILMOT

First Line: COME NOT AGAIN, DEAR SUN
Last Line: MY SPIRIT AWAY.

COME not again, dear sun,
Unless you bring
Ardour less weary a little,
Sweet hope not so brittle
And quiet from the groves
My heart so loves --
The quiet where, with spread and spotted wing,
The brown quail run.

Hang there awhile, low moon;
I fear the day,
Roads and the panniered asses,
The silly wayside lasses,
The laugh of the fool that gapes
Tramping his tub of grapes;
Hang there a little while, awhile I pray
For quiet, soon.

I have loved girls and lost --
Love God and lose.
Have not the foaming horses
Raging the chariot courses,
Panthers and dungeoned apes
Twisted the shapes
Of passion? There is nothing left to choose
At nothing's cost.

Some singing, some o'ercast,
Some without lamps,
Around the seventh column,
Turbaned and solemn,
Full-burdened, black and brown,
The slaves go down;
So the procession of my prophets tramps
Endlessly past.

What's night to me or day?
Storm or soft airs?
The gleam of ponded fishes?
The wells of wishes?
'Tis peace, dear peace, I need
And a heart freed:
For love, vain love, tortures in gold-spun snares
My spirit away.



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