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For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers ;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.
I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows ;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.
And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
— Alfred Tennyson.
ON THE DESERT
All around,
To the bound
Of the vast horizon’s round,
All sand, sand, sand —
All burning, glaring sand —
On my camel's hump I ride,
As he sways from side to side,
With an awkward step of pride,
And his scraggy head uplifted, and his eye
So long and bland.
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