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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


OMNISCIENCE by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHY LOOK'D'ST THOU ON THE BEAUTIES OF THE EARTH
Last Line: MAN, TILL HIS SAVIOUR COME, AT PEACE ASLEEP!

Why look'd'st thou on the beauties of the earth
So gravely in thy deep omniscience;
Turn'd'st from the dews of their unclouded birth
In woods where children call, and innocence
Broods like a dream within a lovely face,
To one wan hint, one backward glance on grief,
On darken'd eyes beyond Time's fleeting grace --
Death heavy and endless of a life too brief?

O love immeasurably meek that scanned,
Past all earth's fickle hopes, past beauty, lust,
The tottering palaces of wind and sand,
Pride and vain pomp, tears, ashes, rapture, dust,
The unearthly tomb whose fading stone shall keep
Man, till his Saviour come, at peace asleep!



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