Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON LISNADARA, by JANE BARLOW Poet's Biography First Line: On lisnadara soft, full soft, falls sleep Last Line: When dreams are done. Subject(s): Landscape | ||||||||
ON Lisnadara soft, full soft, falls sleep Ere dreams begin, When down the fading hills slow shadows creep To shut them in, With all their fields enfolden, hushed and stilled From steep to steep, Whose secret, till the east shine amber-silled, Grey mists shall keep. For blithe the morn with flower of flame would break, And radiance spilled, That round a shimmering shore flushed all the lake Rose-red, and filled The glen with latticed lights, while strange soothsay The breezes spake: How sure our morrow young as yesterday Should yonder wake, And, kindling crystal-clear across the dew A wonder-way, Lead forth thereon old joyance wrought anew In faery ray. Nor need a whit to fear when dusk bereaves Of form and hue The drowsy world, and builds dim walls and eaves Our sight to mew, Bound with most gentle spell, whose magic shed White slumber weaves, Careless as laps a feather-fended head Among close leaves. Yet if the years at last teach bitter lore In sweet joy's stead, Each glad hour grown a pearl, with grudging sore Slipped from the thread; Yea, when long slopes of fiery-fronded fern Thrill to heart's core Grief for the day whose embers withering burn To bloom no more; And footsteps, strayed on lonely paths afar, No more shall turn, Beyond the faint blue heights that hope debar And patience spurn; And streams, sped by with many a chiming leap, But silence mar, Where listeners fain would hear athwart night's deep Some echoing star -- So wild the cry that answer ne'er hath won From Fate's stern keep: Yet, yet a peace shall be indeed begun With shadows' sweep, And rest for hearts worn wearier than to weep Bring set of sun; For soft on Lisnadara, soft falls sleep, When dreams are done. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE PLACE FOR NO STORY by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE BEAUTY OF THINGS by ROBINSON JEFFERS VARIATIONS ON A NEO-CLASSIC THEME by DONALD JUSTICE DIRGE AT THE END OF THE WOODS by LEONIE ADAMS KENNST DU DAS LAND by LEONIE ADAMS INVITATION TO A PAINTER: 3 by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM SONNET: 19. ON A BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES A CURLEW'S CALL by JANE BARLOW |
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