Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FROM THE IONIAN ISLANDS, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Thou pleasant island, whose rich garden-shores Last Line: Bright in the dubious track of after years. Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord Subject(s): Corfu (island), Greece; Iona, Scotland; Travel; Journeys; Trips | ||||||||
THOU pleasant island, whose rich garden-shores Have had a long-lived fame of loveliness, Recorded in the historic song, that framed The unknown poet of an unknown time, Illustrating his native Ithaca, And all her bright society of isles, -- Most pleasant land! To us, who journeying come From the far west, and fall upon thy charms, Our earliest welcome to Ionian seas, Thou art a wonder and a deep delight, Thy usual habitants can never know. Thou art a portal, whence the Orient, The long-desired, long-dreamt-of Orient, Opens upon us, with its stranger forms, Outlines immense and gleaming distances, And all the circumstance of fairyland. Not only with a present happiness, But taking from anticipated joys An added sense of actual bliss, we stand Upon thy cliffs, or tread the slopes that leave No interval of shingle, rock, or sand, Between their verdure and the ocean's brow, -- Whose olive-groves (unlike the darkling growth, That earns on western shores the traveller's scorn) Can wear the gray that on their foliage lies, As but the natural hoar of lengthened days, -- Making, with their thick-bossed and fissured trunks, Bases far-spread and branches serpentine, Sylvan cathedrals, such as in old times Gave the first life to Gothic art, and led Imagination so sublime a way. Then forth advancing, to our novice eyes How beautiful appears the concourse clad In that which, of all garbs, may best befit The grace and dignity of manly form: The bright red open vest, falling upon The white thick-folded kirtle, and low cap Above the high-shorn brow. Nor less than these, With earnest joy, and not injurious pride, We recognize of Britain and her force The wonted ensigns and far-known array; And feel how now the everlasting sea, Leaving his old and once imperious spouse, To faint, in all the beauty of her tears, On the dank footsteps of a mouldering throne, Has taken to himself another mate, Whom his uxorious passion has endowed, Not only with her ancient properties, But with all other gifts and privilege, Within the circle of his regal hand. Now forward, -- forward on a beaming path, But be each step as fair as hope has feigned it, For me, the memory of the little while, That here I rested happily, within The close-drawn pale of English sympathies, Will bear the fruit of many an afterthought, Bright in the dubious track of after years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RICHARD, WHAT'S THAT NOISE? by RICHARD HOWARD LOOKING FOR THE GULF MOTEL by RICHARD BLANCO RIVERS INTO SEAS by LYNDA HULL DESTINATIONS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES TO H. B. (WITH A BOOK OF VERSE) by MAURICE BARING COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES |
|