Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON THE ICE ISLANDS SEEN FLOATING IN THE GERMAN OCEAN, by WILLIAM COWPER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: What portents, from what distant region, ride Last Line: In no congenial gulf for ever lost! | ||||||||
WHAT portents, from what distant region, ride, Unseen till now in ours, the astonished tide? In ages past, old Proteus, with his droves Of sea-calves, sought the mountains and the groves; But now, descending whence of late they stood, Themselves the mountains seem to rove the flood; Dire times were they, full-charged with human woes; And these, scarce less calamitous than those. What view we now? More wondrous still! Behold! Like burnished brass they shine, or beaten gold; And all around the pearl's pure splendour show, And all around the ruby's fiery glow. Come they from India, where the burning earth, All bounteous, gives her richest treasures birth; And where the costly gems that beam around The brows of mightiest potentates are found? No. Never such a countless dazzling store Had left, unseen, the Ganges' peopled shore; Rapacious hands, and ever-watchful eyes, Should sooner far have marked and seized the prize. Whence sprang they then? Ejected have they come From Ves'vius', or from AEtna's burning womb? Thus shine they self-illumed, or but display The borrowed splendours of a cloudless day? With borrowed beams they shine. The gales, that breathe Now landward, and the current's force beneath, Have borne them nearer; and the nearer sight, Advantaged more, contemplates them aright. Their lofty summits crested high, they show, With mingled sleet, and long-incumbent snow: The rest is ice. Far hence, where, most severe, Bleak Winter well-nigh saddens all the year, Their infant growth began. He bade arise Their uncouth forms, portentous in our eyes. Oft as, dissolved by transient suns, the snow Left the tall cliff to join the flood below, He caught and curdled with a freezing blast The current, ere it reached the boundless waste. By slow degrees uprose the wondrous pile, And long successive ages rolled the while, Till, ceaseless in its growth, it claimed to stand Tall as its rival mountains on the land. Thus stood, and, unremovable by skill Or force of man, had stood the structure still; But that, though firmly fixed, supplanted yet By pressure of its own enormous weight, It left the shelving beach,--and with a sound That shook the bellowing waves and rocks around, Self-launched, and swiftly, to the briny wave, As if instinct with strong desire to lave, Down went the ponderous mass. So bards of old How Delos swam the AEgean deep have told. But not of ice was Delos. Delos bore Herb, fruit, and flower. She, crowned with laurel, wore, Even under wintry skies, a summer smile; And Delos was Apollo's favourite isle. But, horrid wanderers of the deep, to you He deems Cimmerian darkness only due. Your hated birth he deigned not to survey, But, scornful, turned his glorious eyes away. Hence! Seek your home, nor longer rashly dare The darts of Phoebus, and a softer air; Lest ye regret, too late, your native coast, In no congenial gulf for ever lost! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A COMPARISON [ADDRESSED] TO A YOUNG LADY by WILLIAM COWPER BOADICEA; AN ODE by WILLIAM COWPER EPITAPH ON A HARE by WILLIAM COWPER OLNEY HYMNS: 1. WALKING WITH GOD by WILLIAM COWPER OLNEY HYMNS: 18. LOVEST THOU ME? by WILLIAM COWPER OLNEY HYMNS: 35. LIGHT SHINING OUT OF DARKNESS by WILLIAM COWPER OLNEY HYMNS: 49. JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING by WILLIAM COWPER OLNEY HYMNS: 9. THE CONTRITE HEART by WILLIAM COWPER ON THE DEATH OF MRS. (NOW LADY) THROCKMORTON'S BULLFINCH by WILLIAM COWPER ON THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE by WILLIAM COWPER ON THE RECEIPT OF MY MOTHER'S PICTURE [OUT OF NORFOLK] by WILLIAM COWPER |
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