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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GREAT THOUGHTS by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHO CAN MISTAKE GREAT THOUGHTS?
Last Line: AND CLOSE THE SOUL WITH HEAVEN AS WITH A SEAL.
Subject(s): THOUGHT; THINKING;
WHO can mistake great thoughts?
They seize upon the mind; arrest, and search,
And shake it; bow the tall soul as by wind;
Rush over it like rivers over reeds,
Which quaver in the current; turn us cold,
And pale, and voiceless; leaving in the brain
A rocking and a ringing, -- glorious,
But momentary; madness might it last,
And close the soul with Heaven as with a seal.



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