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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRELUDE TO THE NANTAHALAS, by BARBARA BOWEN First Line: Since early morning the warm car Last Line: And we mounted upward. | |||
Since early morning the warm car Had climbed the mountain highway; In the twilight of morning we had left the lowlands And the twilight continued all day; The sky was gray as a dove's throat with snow. Saffron and chartreuse were the mountains -- Garnet and gold and rose. Like the heart of an ember the scarlet, Like the heart of a topaz the gold. Under the heavy-laden apple trees The ground lay red with piled fruit And white in all the interstices with snow. When we thought we could stand no more of beauty We came on deer in captivity Walking as lightly as leaf-fall. Snow speckled their sides And tapped the dry leaves at our feet. The deer belonged to the mountains, -- not we. We were aliens to the silence; Our voices shattered it and made discords. Only the sound of snow falling from holly-leaf to holly-leaf And the aged rumble of hidden water belonged to the silence. The warm car received us again And we mounted upward. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DAYS OF THE MONTH by MOTHER GOOSE SONNET: 20 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SONNET: 94 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE SULTANA by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE BREAKING by MARGARET STEELE ANDERSON RAIN ON FALL NIGHTS by MILDRED TELFORD BARNWELL |
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