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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RIVER DUDDON: SONNET 7 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: CHANGE ME, SOME GOD, INTO THAT BREATHING ROSE!'
Last Line: THAT TUNES ON DUDDON'S BANKS HER SLENDER VOICE.
"CHANGE me, some God, into that breathing rose!"
The love-sick Stripling fancifully sighs,
The envied flower beholding, as it lies
On Laura's breast, in exquisite repose;
Or he would pass into her bird, that throws
The darts of song from out its wiry cage;
Enraptured, -- could he for himself engage
The thousandth part of what the Nymph bestows;
And what the little careless innocent
Ungraciously receives. Too daring choice!
There are whose calmer mind it would content
To be an unculled floweret of the glen,
Fearless of plough and scythe; or darkling wren
That tunes on Duddon's banks her slender voice.



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