Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CORYDON, by LUCIUS MORRIS BEEBE First Line: The pleasant hills in solemn silence sleeping Last Line: In sunset woods, forever unannoyed. | ||||||||
The pleasant hills in solemn silence sleeping Under a sunset of perpetual fire, Past summer's weeping, Shall know no more the vibrant melody Of thy sad songs, O lovely shepherd boy! The winds are free And chill November Sweeps thy reed music and thy lyric joy Away with all the things I would remember. The wood-smoke on the silent autumn air, The disconsolate petals on the grass Symbol despair, And all the fragrance of the divine Apollo Is fled from this incalculable loss Where none may follow. Is there no rest In the stark shadow of a naked cross In silhouette against the scarlet west? Shall I forsake philosopher and sage Rebellious drawn From solemn cloister and scholastic page And get me gone, O shepherd of the slender fingers? Guide me above the mountain passes Through the lush grasses Where thy music lingers, Out of nocturnal anguish into dawn. For I shall sing to thee of Mytelene And ancient things And paint with poppied words a twilight scene Where Lesbos flings Her stretch of Sapphic isle Over the sea. Ah, liquid interlude! We would intrude But for a little while Upon the rapture of ambrosial springs. This then is all of the enchanted vision Far from the dusty passion of the streets? The world's derision, The inarticulate call Of ageless things in the awakened woods, Unhappy autumn moods And the wan summons of a grieving fate, Hastening through the twilight pall And beauties vanished, inarticulate? Let no dim spectres haunt my darkened brain Like aspens whispering at eventide Of ancient pain So oft repeated. I shall flee far from the abysmal night, Not in impetuous flight, But, lingering by Lethe's tideless void Shall slumber undefeated In sunset woods, forever unannoyed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PIETRO ARETINO by LUCIUS MORRIS BEEBE VOLATUS TRIUMPHANS by LUCIUS MORRIS BEEBE SIXTEEN MONTHS by CARL SANDBURG NOT ONE TO SPARE by ETHEL LYNN BEERS THE MYSTIC'S VISION by MATHILDE BLIND THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTTINGEN by GEORGE CANNING THE NIGHTINGALE; A CONVERSATION POEM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A NEWPORT ROMANCE by FRANCIS BRET HARTE SUMMER LONGINGS by DENIS FLORENCE MCCARTHY PROMETHEUS BOUND: PROMETHEUS THE TEACHER OF MEN by AESCHYLUS |
|