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Martin Mc Carthy's avatar

Thanks, Mike, for bringing Thomas Chatterton to my attention. I wasn't aware of his poems before now, though he was as you say 'a remarkable talent' for one so young.

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Tom Merrill's avatar

Did you remember to include Digby?

Beyond

Beyond the calumny and wrong,

Beyond the clamour and the throng,

Beyond the praise and triumph-song

He passed.

Beyond the scandal and the doubt,

The fear within, the fight without,

The turmoil and the battle-shout

He sleeps.

The world for him was not so sweet

That he should grieve to stay his feet

Where youth and manhood's highways meet,

And die.

For every child a mother's breast,

For every bird a guarded nest;

For him alone was found no rest

But this.

Beneath the flight of happy hours,

Beneath the withering of the flowers

In folds of peace more sure than ours

He lies.

A night no glaring dawn shall break,

A sleep no cruel voice shall wake,

An heritage that none can take

Are his.

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