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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


COMPENSATION by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE

Poet Analysis

First Line: ALL DAY I BAR YOU FROM MY SLIGHTEST THOUGHT
Last Line: A DREAM CAN BRING ME TO YOUR ARMS ONCE MORE.

ALL day I bar you from my slightest thought;
Make myself clear of you or any mark
Of our wrecked dawn and the uprising lark;
Am stern and strong, and do the thing I ought.
Yet ever are there moments with you fraught:
I hear you like some glad sound in the dark;
You wait like bloom outside my branches stark;
I dare not heed; else were my fight unfought.
But when the clamor and the heat are done,
And spent with both I come unto that door,
Sleep opens for me every setting sun,
The bitter lies behind, the sweet before.
We that are twain by day, at night are one.
A dream can bring me to your arms once more.




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