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This is what Dante called <i>il gran rifiuto</i> - the resignation
of the papacy!<br>
<br>
The author is an interesting 19th-century American poet who
graduated from Yale at the outset of the civil war; he was "class
poet." How did he avoid the war? Like Twain, he went West to seek
his fortune. After the war, he came back and entered Harvard
Divinity School in 1867 but then went to New York to work on a
newspaper. He was a high school teacher and professor of English
literature at the University of California. His best-known poem is
the long (too long) "The Venus of Milo" (1883), part of a farewell
tribute to his California friends.<br>
<br>
On 12/13/10 4:47 PM, Karen Medina wrote:<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">> Carl wrote: > The keys to
the kingdom, eh? I think that makes you<br>
> pope.<br>
> <br>
> T'is by our follies that so long We hold the earth from
heaven away.<br>
> <br>
> These clumsy feet, still in the mire, Go crushing blossoms
without<br>
> end; These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust Among the
heart-strings<br>
> of a friend.<br>
> <br>
> No pity, Lord, could change the heart From red with wrong to
white as<br>
> wool;<br>
> <br>
> The ill-timed truth we might have kept-- Who knows how sharp
it<br>
> pierced and stung? The word we had not sense to say-- Who
knows how<br>
> grandly it had rung!<br>
> <br>
> Be merciful to me, a fool! </span><br>
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