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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


RESURRECTION by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL

First Line: NOT BY ME THESE FEET WERE LED

Not by me these feet were led
To the path beside the wave,
Where the naiad lilies shed
Moonfire o'er a lonely grave.


Let the dragons of the past
In their caverns sleeping lie.
I am dream-betrayed, and cast
Into that old agony.


And an anguish of desire
Burns as in the sunken years,
And the soul sheds drops of fire
All unquenchable by tears.


I, who sought on high for calm ,
In the Everliving find
All I was in what I am,
Fierce with gentle intertwined;


Hearts which I had crucified
With my heart that tortured them;
Penitence, unfallen pride -
These mythorny diadem!




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