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Sonnets and Songs

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[Pg 76] <h3>XXXVI</h3> <h3>This was the Song</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> We have forgotten. This the rowers knew, Straining within the galleys’ reeling night. Life bent to breaking, while their great souls grew Strong in the ancient purposes of Time. This was the song whereby they made their fight, Laughed as they swung. Gods! how the cord bit through! </div> <div class="stanza"> This was the song the pagan lovers heard, Wakened by flowers in a rose-red dawn. Through the bright dew they fled, like ocean stirred With morning. Bare and beautiful they ran, Holding each other’s hand. Through leaves they’re gone, Cleaving the silver pool with flash of bird. </div> <div class="stanza"> [Pg 77]Carven in stone, Abydos holds it fast— The little Eastern dancer with her lute, Wild Erin’s faeries crying for the past. They keep the deathless secret of the word Hid behind Nature’s lips, who, grave, remote, Guard this from profanation till the last. </div> <div class="stanza"> Not unto us who bide the ebb and flow, The senseless order of the tide of law. We have forgotten to be free; we know Only the iteration of the day. The priceless moon, white pearl without a flaw, Drowns in the muddy stream of worldly woe. </div> <div class="stanza"> We take the petty part and leave the whole. Lost to our ken the song of Nature’s youth— The great barbaric winds that sweep the soul And leave it emptied of all else but truth. </div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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