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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WOOD WITCHERY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON

First Line: THE WAY RAN UNDER BOUGHS OF CHECKERED GREEN
Last Line: UNAGING BEAUTY BY ANOTHER NAME.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; HEARTS; NATURE; NEW ENGLAND; NYMPHS; POETRY & POETS;

THE way ran under boughs of checkered green
Where live things stirred, and sweet lights glinted through,
And airs were cool and scented; well I knew
It was New England, but this fresh demesne
Was full of fabled folk no eye hath seen,
Yet every poet's heart must take for true:
Dryads and hamadryads, satyrs too,
And fountain-nymphs, and trolls of freakish mien.
Then, like a flash, the oneness of the world
Broke on me; mythland was not here or there,
But wheresoe'er shy Fancy had unfurled
Her wings, perceiving Nature young and fair;
New England spelled but Arcady, the same
Unaging beauty by another name.



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