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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONG (8) by JOHN WILMOT

Poet Analysis

First Line: TWAS A DISPUTE 'TWIXT HEAVEN AND EARTH
Last Line: HAD SO RETURNED UNHALLOWED TO THE SKIES.

'Twas a dispute 'twixt heaven and earth
Which had produced the nobler birth.
For heaven appeared Cynthia, with all her train,
Till you came forth,
More glorious and more worth
Than she with all those trembling imps of light
With which this envious queen of night
Had proudly decked her conquered self in vain.

I must have perished in that first surprise,
Had I beheld your eyes.
Love, like Apollo when he would inspire
Some holy breast, laid all his glories by;
Else the god, clothed in his heavenly fire,
Would have possessed too powerfully,
And making of his priest a sacrifice,
Had so returned unhallowed to the skies.



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