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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN

Poet Analysis

First Line: DIM STARS LIKE SNOWFLAKES ARE FLUTTERING IN HEAVEN
Last Line: BUT I KNOW ISOLATION.
Subject(s): ABSENCE; SEPARATION; ISOLATION;

DIM stars like snowflakes are fluttering in heaven,
Down the cloud-mountains by wind-torrents riven;
There are still chances, but one more than all
Slowly burns out on the sea's dark wall --
The best ever given.

One, the divinest, goes down to the dark,
In a red sullen vanishing, a poor stifled spark.
You, who have reason, were staring at this
As though by your gaze it would clear the abyss --
It was once your sea-mark.

Hear on the shore too the sighed monotones
Of waves that in weakness slip past the purled stones;
The seethe of blown sand round the dry fractured hull,
Salt-reeds and tusked fence; hear the struck gull
With death in his bones.

Slow comes the net in, that's filled with frustration;
Night ends the day of thwart discreation;
I would be your miracle-worker, sad friend,
Bid a music for you and a new star ascend, --
But I know isolation.



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