Inexorable Deities by Edgar Lee Masters

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend November 23, 2014   Inexorable Deities   Edgar Lee Masters

Deities! Inexorable revealers, Give me strength to endure The gifts of the Muses, Daughters of Memory. When the sky is blue as Minerva’s eyes Let me stand unshaken; When the sea sings to the rising sun Let me be unafraid; When the meadow lark falls like a meteor Through the light of afternoon, An unloosened fountain of rapture, Keep my heart from spilling Its vital power; When at the dawn The dim souls of crocuses hear the calls Of waking birds, Give me to live but master the loveliness. Keep my eyes unharmed from splendors Unveiled by you, And my ears at peace Filled no less with the music Of Passion and Pain, growth and change. But O ye sacred and terrible powers, Reckless of my mortality, Strengthen me to behold a face, To know the spirit of a beloved one Yet to endure, yet to dare!            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   “Inexorable Dieties” was published in Masters’s collection Starved Rock (The Macmillan Company, 1919).   Edgar Lee Masters was born in 1868, in Garnett, Kansas. He published numerous books of poetry, including A Book of Verses (1898), Spoon River Anthology (1915), and More People (1939). He died in Philadelphia in 1950. Poetry by Masters   Spoon River Anthology (Createspace, 2010) "At a Window" by Carl Sandburg "These Hands, If Not Gods" by Natalie Diaz "The Gods Are in the Valley" by Dana Levin Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038