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YES, stars were with me formerly. | |
(I also knew the wind and sea; | |
And hill-tops had my feet by heart. | |
Their shagged heights would sting and start | |
When I came leaping on their backs. | 5 |
I knew the earths queer crooked cracks, | |
Where hidden waters weave a low | |
And druid chant of joy and woe.) | |
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But stars were with me most of all. | |
I heard them flame and break and fall. | 10 |
Their excellent array, their free | |
Encounter with Eternity, | |
I learned. And it was good to know | |
That where God walked, I too might go. | |
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Now, all these things are passed. For I | 15 |
Grow very old and glad to die. | |
What did they profit me, say you, | |
These distant bloodless things I knew? | |
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Profit? What profit hath the sea | |
Of her deep-throated threnody? | 20 |
What profit hath the sun, who stands | |
Staring on space with idle hands? | |
And what should God Himself acquire | |
From all the aeons blood and fire? | |
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My profit is as theirs: to be | 25 |
Made proof against mortality: | |
To know that I have companied | |
With all that shines and lives, amid | |
So much the years sift through their hands, | |
Most mortal, windy, worthless sands. | 30 |
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This day I have great peace. With me | |
Shall stars abide eternally! | |
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