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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO POEMS FROM THE WAR: 2 by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH

Poet Analysis

First Line: LIKE MOON-DARK, LIKE BROWN WATER YOU ESCAPE
Last Line: ALL BEAUTY HAS BECOME YOUR DWELLING PLACE.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

Like moon-dark, like brown water you escape,
O laughing mouth, O sweet uplifted lips.
With the peering brain old ghosts take shape;
You flame and wither as the white foam slips
Back from the broken wave: sometimes a start,
A gesture of the hands, a way you own
Of bending that smooth head above your heart, --
Then these are vanished, then the dream is gone.

Oh, you are too much mine and flesh of me
To seal upon the brain, who in the blood
Are so intense a pulse, so swift a flood
Of beauty, such unceasing instancy.
Dear unimagined brow, unvisioned face,
All beauty has become your dwelling place.



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