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This poem is taken from PN Review 43, Volume 11 Number 5, May - June 1985.

From the United Provinces 1632-1677 Alfred Corn

1 Spinoza in the Hague

Glass of the lens he ground to perfect pitch
Infused his lungs year in, year out; and took
His breath away, and slowed the patient book.
His monument, it stood to Reason, which
Was Revelation for the honest man.
Mastering Latin and Descartes, he lost
The shelter of the fathers' law - almost
...


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