| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916. |
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| 143. The Mist |
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| I AM the mist, the impalpable mist, | |
| Back of the thing you seek. | |
| My arms are long, | |
| Long as the reach of time and space. | |
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| Some toil and toil, believing, | 5 |
| Looking now and again on my face, | |
| Catching a vital, olden glory. | |
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| But no one passes me, | |
| I tangle and snare them all. | |
| I am the cause of the Sphinx, | 10 |
| The voiceless, baffled, patient Sphinx. | |
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| I was at the first of things, | |
| I will be at the last. | |
| I am the primal mist | |
| And no man passes me; | 15 |
| My long impalpable arms | |
| Bar them all. | |
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