Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHITEHALL STAIRS, by AARON HILL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHITEHALL STAIRS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: From whitehall stairs, whence oft with distant view
Last Line: I, rapt in your dear heav'n, my loss describe.
Subject(s): Love; Stairs; Suicide


FROM Whitehall Stairs, whence oft with distant view
I've gazed whole moonshine hours on hours away,
Blest but to see those roofs which covered you,
And watched beneath what star you sleeping lay;

Launched on the smiling stream, which felt my hope,
And danced and quivered round my gliding boat,
I came this day to give my tongue free scope,
And vent the passion which my looks denote.

To tell my dear, my soul-disturbing Muse
(But that's a name can speak but half her charms),
How my full heart does my pen's aid refuse,
And bids my voice describe my soul's alarms.

To tell what transports your last letter gave,
What heav'ns were opened in your soft complaint;
To tell what pride I take to be your slave,
And how triumphant love disdains restraint.

But when I missed you, and took boat again,
The sympathetic sun condoled my woe,
Drew in his beams to mourn my pitied pain,
And bid the shadowed stream benighted flow.

Sudden, the weeping skies unsluiced their store,
And torrents of big tears unceasing shed;
Sad, I drove homeward to a flooded shore,
And, disappointed, hung my dripping head.

Landed at length, I sable coffee drink
And, ill-surrounded by a noisy tribe,
Scornful of what they do, or say, or think,
I, rapt in your dear heav'n, my loss describe.





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