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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ANTIPHONY by DOROTHY MARIE DAVIS

First Line: O HEART, NO LONGER MOURN; BEHOLD THE HILLS
Last Line: WIND STRIPPED, RAIN-LAVED OF CEREMENTS OF SAND.

O Heart, no longer mourn; behold the hills,
How radiant they greet the Easter dawn!
Come, reverently, while the silence fills
The kneeling valleys with her carillon.
These mountains witness immortality:
They knew strange death, ordealed by ice and fire,
Yet rose triumphant from their grave of sea,
Transcending pristine heights to climb still higher,
Relinquishing a worn-out robe of gray
For sable forests and a crown of frost.
And if death like a sea embrace this clay
Some instant, never fear the sun be lost!
You shall arise! You shall arise to stand
Wind stripped, rain-laved of cerements of sand.



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