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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ON SEEING THE ELGIN MARBLES by JOHN KEATS

Poet Analysis

First Line: MY SPIRIT IS TOO WEAK - MORTALITY
Last Line: A SUN - A SHADOW OF A MAGNITUDE.
Subject(s): ELGIN MARBLES; PARTHENON; SCULPTURE & SCULPTORS;

My spirit is too weak - mortality
Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep,
And each imagin'd pinnacle and steep
Of godlike hardship, tells me I must die
Like a sick Eagle looking at the sky.
Yet 'tis a gentle luxury to weep
That I have not the cloudy winds to keep,
Fresh for the opening of the morning's eye.
Such dim-conceived glories of the brain
Bring round the heart an undescribable feud;
So do these wonders a most dizzy pain,
That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude
Wasting of old Time - with a billowy main -
A sun - a shadow of a magnitude.



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