Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MOTES, by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Up and down, up and down Last Line: Motes! Subject(s): Dust | ||||||||
Up and down, up and down, In the air the sunshine mellows -- Green or yellow, gold or brown, See those gay capricious fellows! Sparkling, glittering, frisking, dancing, Now retreating, now advancing, Livelier than the jolliest clown, Tinier than the tiniest fairy That e'er robbed a farmer's dairy Of the luscious cream which floats Round his frothed and brimming bowls Buoyant, tireless little souls! Who can fold them, Catch or hold them? Evanescent, Omnipresent, Shy eluders, Bold obtruders, Past all joking, most provoking, Tricksy, whisky, frisky Motes. Up and down, up and down, Light in sunshine, lost in shadow -- Green or yellow, gold or brown, Over hill and over meadow, Swiftly over Rock-ribbed height and billowy clover, Still advancing, Still retreating, Glittering, fleeting, Never dozing, nor reposing, But forever dancing, dancing; And in numberless quaint fusions, And eye-dazzling convolutions, Deftly sped Overhead -- See (where happy sunshine mellows All the air) those jovial fellows! Ah! ye tricksome waifs and tiny, Who may circumvent and bind ye? Can it be such creatures antic, Unrestrained, grotesquely frantic, Are but small nymphs out of school, Laughing at all graver rule? Or loose sylphides, bent on sowing, Sowing, Sowing, In their thoughtless mirth o'erflowing, Naughty crops of wildish oats? How they jostle, whirl and hustle, Up and down, up and down, Through the air the sunshine mellows! Green or yellow, gold or brown, All those gay, capricious fellows, Evanescent, Omnipresent, Shy eluders, Bold obtruders, Past all joking, most provoking, Tricksy, whisky, frisky, Motes! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A PECK OF GOLD by ROBERT FROST DUST IN THE EYES by ROBERT FROST IN THE DUST by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER AN OLD BURYING GROUND by ELFRIDA DE RENNE BARROW A STORM IN THE DISTANCE (AMONG THE GEORGIAN HILLS) by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE |
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