Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BY THE AUTUMN SEA, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Fair as the dawn of the fairest day Last Line: And the night shades close on the autumn sea. Subject(s): Sea; Ocean | ||||||||
FAIR as the dawn of the fairest day, Sad as the evening's tender gray, By the latest lustre of sunset kissed, That wavers and wanes through an amber mist, There cometh a dream of the past to me, On the desert sands, by the autumn sea. All heaven is wrapped in a mystic veil, And the face of the ocean is dim and pale, And there rises a wind from the chill northwest, That seemeth the wail of a soul's unrest, As the twilight falls, and the vapors flee Far over the wastes of the autumn sea. A single ship through the gloaming glides Upborne on the swell of the seaward tides; And above the gleam of her topmost spar Are the virgin eyes of the vesper-star That shine with an angel's ruth on me, A hopeless waif, by the autumn sea. The wings of the ghostly beach-birds gleam Through the shimmering surf, and the curlew's scream Falls faintly shrill from the darkening height; The first weird sigh on the lips of Night Breathes low through the sedge and the blasted tree, With a murmur of doom, by the autumn sea. Oh, sky-enshadowed and yearning main, Your gloom but deepens this human pain; Those waves seem big with a nameless care, That sky is a type of the heart's despair, As I linger and muse by the sombre lea, And the night shades close on the autumn sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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