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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
RUIN, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Beside the lonely tower I gaze for thee Last Line: Of knife-like shapes, that only famine find. Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): Ruins | |||
BESIDE the lonely tower I gaze for thee, O clear-blue-eyed Tranquillity; The tower's green tassels wave and beckon me, And that way hurries the contented bee. Yet when I come, To stand in shadow of old martyrdom, Where stairs uptwisting shatter in the air, And conscience views blood-streaks and matted hair, The stone skull-eyes look down most drearily, And poisonous mood floats from the elder-tree Where unseen serpents wind. The eyes look down Where snouts of tree-anatomies toad-brown Pierce the green-scurfed pond, and waters lurch To the submerged fury and fiery-tortured search Of knife-like shapes, that only famine find. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 6. RUINS OF PAESTUM by SARA TEASDALE WHERE A ROMAN VILLA STOOD, ABOVE FREIBURG' by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE THE RAVAGED VILLA by HERMAN MELVILLE HYMN AMONG THE RUINS by OCTAVIO PAZ OZYMANDIAS by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ODE TO LUDLOW CASTLE by LUCY AIKEN RUINS OF CORINTH by ANTIPATER OF SIDON ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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