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  • A Birthday
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A Birthday

Edwin Muir

I never felt so much
Since I have felt at all
The tingling smell and touch
Of dogrose and sweet briar,
Nettles against the wall,
All sours and sweets that grow
Together or apart
In hedge or marsh or ditch.
I gather to my heart
Beast, insect, flower, earth, water, fire,
In absolute desire,
As fifty years ago.

Acceptance, gratitude:
The first look and the last
When all between has passed
Restore ingenuous good
That seeks no personal end
Nor strives to mar or mend.
Before I touched the food
Sweetness ensnared my tongue;
Before I saw the wood
I loved each nook and bend,
The track going right and wrong;
Before I took the road
Direction ravished my soul.
Now that I can discern
It whole or almost whole,
Acceptance and gratitude
Like travellers return
And stand where they first stood.


Edwin Muir

first published in The Voyage (Faber, 1946) and included in Collected Poems (Faber, 1984)

Reproduced by permission of the Estate of Edwin Muir.

Tags:

birthdays existence nature Optimism & Happiness sensations
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Edwin Muir1887 - 1959

Edwin Muir's poetic vision is influenced by a longing for lost Edens and lost childhood, as well as his apocalyptic sense of war and its aftermath. He was an influential critic as well as poet.
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