Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON REFUSAL OF AID BETWEEN NATIONS, by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON REFUSAL OF AID BETWEEN NATIONS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not that the earth is changing. O my god!
Last Line: That the earth falls asunder, being old.
Alternate Author Name(s): Rossetti, Gabriel Charles Dante
Subject(s): Europe


NOT that the earth is changing, O my God!
Nor that the seasons totter in their walk,--
Not that the virulent ill of act and talk
Seethes ever as a winepress ever trod,--
Not therefore are we certain that the rod
Weighs in thine hand to smite thy world; though now
Beneath thine hand so many nations bow,
So many kings:--not therefore, O my God!--

But because Man is parcelled out in men
To-day; because, for any wrongful blow,
No man not stricken asks, 'I would be told
Why thou dost thus;' but his heart whispers then,
'He is he, I am I.' By this we know
That the earth falls asunder, being old.





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