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FROM LIPS OF STONE by EDITH MATILDA THOMAS

First Line: AMID A WASTE AND SOLITARY FIELD
Last Line: "COULD NEVER MELT, NOR YET THINE ANGER BREAK?"

A MID a waste and solitary field,
Upon the twilight boundary of the day,
Upspake the timeless flintstone huge and gray:
"Why should my counsel be forever sealed?
To thee an ancient truth shall be revealed --
To thee, a wavering mortal, brief of stay: --
Something of kin, -- thou piece of passioned clay,
Art thou and I, whom passion ne'er did wield;

For, lo! did not Deucalion at the flood
Behind him fling us stones -- and men we grew?
With limbs we moved abroad, with lips we spake!
And hast not thou, with grief, seen flesh-and-blood
Become to thee as stones, that Pity's dew
Could never melt, nor yet thine anger break?"



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