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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CAPTIVITY. - MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: AS THE COLD ASPECT OF A SUNLESS WAY ...'
Last Line: "AND, LIKE MINE EYES THAT STREAM WITH SORROW, BLIND!"
Subject(s): MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587); MARY STUART;

"AS the cold aspect of a sunless way
Strikes through the Traveller's frame with deadlier chill,
Oft as appears a grove, or obvious hill,
Glistening with unparticipated ray,
Or shining slope where he must never stray;
So joys, remembered without wish or will
Sharpen the keenest edge of present ill, --
On the crushed heart a heavier burthen lay.
Just Heaven, contract the compass of my mind
To fit proportion with my altered state!
Quench those felicities whose light I find
Reflected in my bosom all too late! --
O be my spirit, like my thraldom, strait;
And, like mine eyes that stream with sorrow, blind!"




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