Emmanuel George Cefai Poems

O that I dream, and dream abstruse to-day
Dream full abstruse to cut the chains
Of this attachment to conventionality:
Day follows routine of the day
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The light that in the distance I
Have seen swift come and go
Into the dark night
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The wind, how the wind neighs, how slow
How stale the bosom of the lake
How rare the rustling of the breeze
In the oak trees.
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On every front I lose, my armies lose.
Yet when the dusk begins its reign
I take up the lute and seeing which
The Muse kisses me and I
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i.

Dross coins and wealth
Dross coins and wealth
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When into the folds of heaven’s face I stare
And in that book to read the full attempt
I to learn how my love will fare desire
So anxious I so tremulous and such the green
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When I upon the stars gaze and stare
And wish that had I the deft lore
Of wise astronomers and more
That might I all their book unlock and read.
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Winter brings tempests hoar and frost and ire
Amidst the white-frothed waves in tempests loud
And on the bough most distant from the cold
The owl shelters her ruffled feathers from the frost.
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Night they say with its black hides
Most roaring tempests hideous seas and crags
That front the hailing wind around their juts
And trees the wind entwines aloud with frost:
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Had I for long years despised all witchery
And feared witches’ brooms and witches’ flights
More than the fires of hell, Siberian frosts.
But now by necessity in corner brought
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