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Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

As It Is

E. (Edith) Nesbit

If you and I
Had wings to fly—
Great wings like seagulls’ wings—
How would we soar
Above the roar
Of loud unneeded things!

We two would rise
Through changing skies
To blue unclouded space,
And undismayed
And unafraid
Meet the sun face to face.

But wings we know not;
The feathers grow not
To carry us so high;
And low in the gloom
Of a little room
We weep and say good-bye.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Many Voices | Hutchinson and Co., 1922
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