Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RAVENNA PINE FOREST, by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RAVENNA PINE FOREST, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A heavy spot the forest looks at first
Last Line: Or startled gull up-screaming toward the sea.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hunt, Leigh
Subject(s): Forests; Pine Trees; Ravenna, Italy; Trees; Woods


A HEAVY spot the forest looks at first,
To one grim shade condemn'd, and sandy thirst,
Chequer'd with thorns, and thistles run to seed,
Or plashy pools half-cover'd with green weed,
About whose sides the swarming insects fry
In the hot sun, a noisome company;
But, entering more and more, they quit the sand
At once, and strike upon a grassy land,
From which the trees as from a carpet rise
In knolls and clumps, in rich varieties.
The knights are for a moment forced to rein
Their horses in, which, feeling turf again,
Thrill, and curvet, and long to be at large
To scour the space, and give the winds a charge,
Or pulling tight the bridles as they pass,
Dip their warm mouths into the freshening grass:
But soon in easy rank, from glade to glade,
Proceed they, coasting underneath the shade;
Some bearing to the cool their placid brows,
Some looking upward through the glimmering
Or peering into spots that inwardly
Open green glooms, and half-prepared to see boughs,
The lady cross it, that, as stories tell,
Ran loud and torn before a knight of hell.
Various the trees and passing foliage here, --
Wild pear, and oak, and dusky juniper,
With briony between in trails of white,
And ivy, and the suckle's streaky light,
And moss, warm gleaming with a sudden mark,
Like growths of sunshine left upon the bark;
And still the pine, flat-topp'd, and dark, and tall,
In lordly right predominant o'er all.
Anon the sweet birds, like a sudden throng
Of happy children, ring their tangled song
From out the greener trees; and then a cloud
Of cawing rooks breaks o'er them, gathering loud
Like savages at ships; and then again
Nothing is heard but their own stately train,
Or ring-dove that repeats his pensive plea,
Or startled gull up-screaming toward the sea.





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