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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LYRICAL INTERLUDE: 17 by HEINRICH HEINE

First Line: LOVED ONE -- GLADLY WOULD I KNOW IT
Last Line: THESE THE POET NEVER MADE.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; LOVE; POETRY & POETS; VISION;

LOVED one -- gladly would I know it, --
Art thou but a vision fair,
Such as in his brain the poet
Loves in summer to prepare?

No! such eyes of magic splendour,
Lips so rosy and so warm,
Such a child, so sweet and tender,
Never did the poet form.

Basilisks and vampires gory,
Dragons, monsters of the earth,
Suchlike evil beasts of story
In the poet's fire have birth.

But thyself, thy wiles insidious,
And thy face, so sweet and staid,
And thy kindly looks perfidious, --
These the poet never made.



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