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Sonnet VIII

By Alan Seeger

Topics: classic

Oft as by chance, a little while apart     The pall of empty, loveless hours withdrawn,     Sweet Beauty, opening on the impoverished heart,     Beams like the jewel on the breast of dawn:     Not though high heaven should rend would deeper awe     Fill me than penetrates my spirit thus,     Nor all those signs the Patmian prophet saw     Seem a new heaven and earth so marvelous;     But, clad thenceforth in iridescent dyes,     The fair world glistens, and in after days     The memory of kind lips and laughing eyes     Lives in my step and lightens all my face, -     So they who found the Earthly Paradise     Still breathed, returned, of that sweet, joyful place.

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"Oft as by chance, a little while apart..."

This evocative piece by Alan Seeger, titled "Sonnet VIII", represents a masterful exploration of classic. The lines capture a profound emotional resonance... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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Author:Alan Seeger

"Oft as by chance, a little while apart..." by Alan Seeger

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Alan Seeger

About Alan Seeger

Alan Seeger (1888–1916) was an American poet who fought in the French Foreign Legion during World War I. His poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" is one of the most famous war poems, and he was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme.

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