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Page:Near and Far (Blunden).djvu/33

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The Inviolate
There on the white Pacific shore the pinesStill serve their jealous gods, and late and soonThe murmur runs along their rugged lines,"What black ship[1] waits the crash of our typhoon?"
And in this vigil circled, calm and proud,God-gates and temples glow with changeless noon,Their mysteries luring that young seraph-cloudSwan-like between the mountain and the moon.

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  1. Black ship, i.e. foreign warship, as introduced by Commodore Perry.