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Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Aspiration

Archibald Lampman

Oh deep-eyed brothers was there ever here,
  Or is there now, or shall there sometime be
  Harbour or any rest for such as we,
Lone thin-cheeked mariners, that aye must steer
Our whispering barks with such keen hope and fear
  Toward misty bournes across the coastless sea,
  Whose winds are songs that ever gust and flee,
Whose shores are dreams that tower but come not near.

Yet we perchance, for all that flesh and mind
  Of many ills be marked with many a trace,
Shall find this life more sweet more strangely kind,
  Than they of that dim-hearted earthly race,
  Who creep firm-nailed upon the earth’s hard face,
And hear nor see not, being deaf and blind.
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From Among the Millet and Other Poems
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