Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SAN FRANCISCO, FROM THE SEA, by FRANCIS BRET HARTE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SAN FRANCISCO, FROM THE SEA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Serene, indifferent of fate
Last Line: Lie unrecorded and forgot.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harte, Bret
Subject(s): San Francisco


SERENE, indifferent of Fate,
Thou sittest at the Western Gate;

Upon thy heights so lately won
Still slant the banners of the sun;

Thou seest the white seas strike their tents,
O Warder of two Continents!

And scornful of the peace that flies
Thy angry winds and sullen skies,

Thou drawest all things, small or great,
To thee, beside the Western Gate.

O lion's whelp, that hidest fast
In jungle growth of spire and mast,

I know thy cunning and thy greed,
Thy hard high lust and wilful deed,

And all thy glory loves to tell
Of specious gifts material.

Drop down, O fleecy Fog, and hide
Her sceptic sneer, and all her pride!

Wrap her, O Fog, in gown and hood
Of her Franciscan Brotherhood.

Hide me her faults, her sin and blame;
With thy gray mantle cloak her shame!

So shall she, cowled, sit and pray
Till morning bears her sins away.

Then rise, O fleecy Fog, and raise
The glory of her coming days;

Be as the cloud that flecks the seas
Above her smoky argosies.

When forms familiar shall give place
To stranger speech and newer face;

When all her throes and anxious fears
Lie hushed in the repose of years;

When Art shall raise and Culture lift
The sensual joys and meaner thrift,

And all fulfilled the vision, we
Who watch and wait shall never see, --

Who, in the morning of her race,
Toiled fair or meanly in our place, --

But, yielding to the common lot,
Lie unrecorded and forgot.





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