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War and Love/Proem

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For works with similar titles, see Proem.

Boston: The Four Seas Company, pages 11–13

PART I

War

"They said that this mystery never shall cease:
The priest promotes war, and the soldier peace.'
Blake.

PROEM

Out of this turmoil and passion,
This implacable contest,
This vast sea of effort,
I would gather something of repose,
Some intuition of the inalterable gods,
Some Attic gesture.

Each day I grow more restless,
See the austere shape elude me,
Gaze impotently upon a thousand miseries
And still am dumb.

May, 1917