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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TWO LIVES. PART 2: 12 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: TWAS NOT ENOUGH, IT SEEMS. O HOUSE OF DEATH
Last Line: IN THAT DIM VALLEY OF THE MOON'S ECLIPSE!)

'Twas not enough, it seems. O House of Death,
Of Madness, of Old Age, of Love-in-terror,
White house whose fatal beauty flattereth!
I thought 't had been enough -- and mine the error
And mine the suffrance with each pulse and breath
In the lone after-years! "A poet's House,"
Her voice memorial on the night wind saith.
"Nun hoch der Dichter! -- bald ist alles aus!"
Say I -- so toast me, friends. . . Am I, too, mad --
By slow infection of that pictured face?
Or have I sucked the taint from Love's red lips,
That thus I rant and ramble? -- (If I had,
O only had! -- and found with her my place
In that dim Valley of the moon's eclipse!)



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