[net.poems] you canto if you want to

ix222 (12/18/82)

Hoi Polloi:

I wanted to give you all something for Christmas,
Something to make you think, but not have second thoughts,
Something to reawaken awe in a jaded hacker
Who would just as soon debug a cobol compiler as read a poem;
So let me give you this:  a verbal rural mural by shelley in six parts
Thats well, as swell as hell; and to be perfectly blunt,
That i love (if i must analyze) 
For the wonderful lyric quality and evocative imagery
Even if the poet seems to have over-active imagination.

Please enjoy and have a merry christmas/happy hanukky.

				--steve 
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	  #To a Skylark	[first quasi-canto]


	  Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
	    Bird thou never wert,
	  That from Heaven, or near it,
	    Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

	  Higher still and higher
	    From the earth thou springest
	  Like a cloud of fire;
	    The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

	  In the golden lightning 
	    Of the sunken sun
	  O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
	    Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

	  The pale purple even
	    Melts around thy flight;
	  Like a star of Heaven
	    In the broad daylight
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.

[to be continued...]

		--Percy Bysshe Shelley
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	brought to your attention by
	steve serocki  
	ucbvax;sdcsvax;sdccsu3;ix222