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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO A FRIEND WHO GAVE ME A GROUP OF WEEDS AND GRASSES, AFTER DURER by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Poet Analysis

First Line: TRUE AS THE SUN'S OWN WORK, BUT MORE REFINED
Last Line: OR GROWN IN NATURE'S MYSTERIES AN ADEPT?
Subject(s): DURER, ALBRECHT (1471-1528); FRIENDSHIP; GIFTS & GIVING;

TRUE as the sun's own work, but more refined,
It tells of love behind the artist's eye,
Of sweet companionships with earth and sky,
And summers stored, the sunshine of the mind.
What peace! Sure, ere you breathe, the fickle wind
Will break its truce and bend that grass-plume high,
Scarcely yet quiet from the gilded fly
That flits a more luxurious perch to find.
Thanks for a pleasure that can never pall,
A serene moment, deftly caught and kept
To make immortal summer on my wall.
Had he who drew such gladness ever wept?
Ask rather could he else have seen at all,
Or grown in Nature's mysteries an adept?



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